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Electric Dreams Volume 11 Issue 10
E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s
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E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s
Volume #11 Issue #10
October 2004
ISSN# 1089 4284
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http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
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C O N T E N T S
++ Editor's Notes
++ News PsiberDreaming Conference 9-19 to 10-3-04
You can still get in asdreams.org/psi2004
++ Column: An Excerpt From the Lucid Dream Exchange
Lucy Gillis
++ Article: X-ray Eyes and Heady Dreams
Linda Lane Magallón
++ Article: The Lucidity Continuum
Ed Kellogg, Ph.D.
++ Article: Composing Poetry in Lucid Dreams
George Gillespie
++ DREAM SECTION: Dreams from September, 2004
Host Kat Peters-Midland
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D E A D L I N E :
October 20nd deadline for November 2004 submissions
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Post Dreams and Comments on Dreams to:
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
Send Dreaming News and Calendar Events to:
Peggy Coats <info@dreamtree.com>
Send Articles and Subscription concerns to:
Richard Wilkerson: <rcwilk@dreamgate.com>
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Editor's Notes
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Welcome to the October 2004 issue of Electric Dreams, your portal
to dreams and dreamwork online.
If you are new to dreams and dreamwork, please join us on
dreamchatters@yahoogroups.com and we will guide you to the
resources & groups you need. To join send an e to
dreamchatters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Electric Dreams is looking for a Dream News Editor. If you are
interested in this position, see the details below. This is a
really fun position as you get to know all the players in the
field of dreams.
This month in Electric Dreams:
Lucy Gillis shares travels around the dream world to find the most
talented and experimental lucid dreamers. This month, she
discusses the Lucid Laboratory and how superspace and parallel
universes may be explored via lucid dreaming. Be sure to read the
Excerpt from the Lucid Dream Exchange.
How do you look in the dream state? Just like the waking state? I
wouldn't count on it! When you have a shared dream, your partner
might not see your current physical body at all. Read Linda Lane
Magallón's "X-ray Eyes and Heady Dreams" for some interesting
alternative ways you might be seen in the land of dreams. Then
check out her psyberspace paper "The Mystery of the Missing Mutual
Dreamers" for even more intriguing ways we can appear to each
other while we are asleep. Linda is the author of the book,
*Mutual Dreaming: When Two or More People Share the Same Dream.
We are featuring a special article from Ed Kellogg, Ph.D. called
"The Lucidity Continuum." The question of how to differentiate the
many levels and types of consciousness in a lucid dream are
discussed and a model is offered. I am including links to an
online presentation and pictures. Ed has been researching dreams,
lucidity and paranormal phenomena for some time. He hosts ASD's
Paranormal Phenomena Forum ( http://www.asdreams.org/telepathy/ ).
Also, he organized and hosted ASD's first two online
PsiberDreaming Conferences, and is currently hosting ASD's Third
PsiberDreaming Conference, that will last until October 3rd,
2004,( http://www.asdreams.org/psi2004 ).
How poetic is the dream-maker? George Gillespie explores this
question in his article "Composing Poetry in Lucid Dreams."
George Gillespie is an American Baptist minister and has
taught the history of religions at seminaries in India. He now
writes on the phenomenology of visual experience, including
dreaming, hypnopompic imagery, mysticism, and perception.
ASD has a few regional conferences this fall. I will give some
more details below, but be sure to see the site asdreams.org for
details, or subscribe to their newsletter the asd-enews-
subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Have you seen the Electric Dreams Articles Archive? Almost all the
articles from the last decade of Electric Dreams are sorted by
author, and now, thanks to Janet Garrett, you can see them listed
chronologically by issue as well. You can see her work progress
and view hundreds of article on dreams at:
http://www.improverse.com/ed-articles/index.htm
A golden porpoise in the sky, the moon falling, blood falling from
the ceiling into the toilet, a huge python snake shedding skin in
the middle of the road, ghosts floating above,...it sounds like a
science fiction story, doesn't it? Actually they're all in dreams
in the Dream section!
Dreams edited by your Dream Section Editor, Kat Peters-Midland
If you want to send in dreams, please enter them at
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
or join the dream flow at dreamflow@yahoogroups.com
(dreamflow-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)
--------------------
For those of you who are new to dreams and dreaming, be sure to
stop by one of the many resources:
http://www.dreamtree.com
http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/library
Electric Dreams in PDF: (thanks to Nick Cumbo)
http://electric.dreamofpeace.net/
http://www.dreamofpeace.net/community/electricdreams/
--------------------
Dreamin' up a storm,
-Richard Wilkerson
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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Global Dreaming News seeks new Editor (volunteer position)
If you feel you would be a good candidate to report the news that
is going on in the dream world, be sure to contact Richard
Wilkerson at rcwilk@dreamgte.com
The GDNews editor will receive the support of the Electric Dreams
staff in making contact with all the essential people in the dream
world, and will be responsible for putting this information
together once a month for publication. This is a really fun
position and you can expand then news as you like. In the past, we
have included reviews of dream books, dates for conferences,
seminars, talks and other events, new websites and research news
and requests.
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Regional Conferences for the
International Association for the Study of Dreams:
Pacific Northwest Dream Conference
Saturday October 2, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Cannon Beach, Oregon (Portland)
http://www.asdreams.org/2004oregon/index.htm
New Horizons in Dreamwork:
Exploring the Future Potentials of Dreaming
Saturday, October 23, 2004
John F Kennedy University
Pleasant Hill Campus, California
http://www.asdreams.org/2004jfku/index.htm
Regional Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Garfield, Nofzinger, Pannier, Van de Castle and more
November 20 - 21, 2004
at the Society for Contemporary Craft
2100 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
http://www.nauticom.net/www/netcadet/dahpage.html
PsiberDreaming Conference
The International Association for the Study of Dreams
September 19, 2004 - October 3, 2004
Virtual Conference - Online
http://asdreams.org/psi2004/
------------------
Research Request: Dreams of the 2004 US Presidential Election
Have you or anyone you know dreamed about the 2004 US Presidential
election? For example, dreams about the candidates (e.g., George
W. Bush, John Kerry, Dick Cheney, John Edwards, Ralph Nader), the
major issues (e.g., terrorism, war in Iraq, economy), and/or the
election process itself? If yes, please contact Kelly Bulkeley,
Ph.D. at <kellybulkeley@earthlink.net> for inclusion in an ongoing
research project on dreams and politics. In addition to describing
the dream(s) in as much detail as possible, please also include
the dreamer's age, gender, state of residence, political
affiliation, and ideas about what the dream(s) might mean. All
dream reports will be kept confidential, and if you like you will
receive comments about your dreams from Dr. Bulkeley.
------------------------ END NEWS ----------------------
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An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange
By Lucy Gillis
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An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange
By Lucy Gillis
Lucid Laboratory
© Lucy Gillis
"The laboratory of parallel universe experimentation may not lie
in a mechanical time machine, á la Jules Verne, but could exist
between our ears. ". . . the possibility exists that parallel
universes may be extremely close to us, perhaps only atomic
dimensions away but perhaps in a higher dimension of space - an
extension into what physicists call superspace. Modern
neuroscience, through the study of altered states of awareness,
schizophrenia, and lucid dreaming, could be indicating the
closeness of parallel worlds to our own."
Fred Alan Wolf, Ph. D., Parallel Universes
Physics
No longer the realm of metaphysics and science fiction, today
parallel universes are a serious consideration in quantum theory.
Quantum physics is the physics of the very small - the subatomic
level of reality. It is believed by many physicists that
consciousness plays a vital role in quantum reality, where it
seems the observer cannot be separated from the observed; in
effect the observer creates the observed.
Newtonian physics applies to the very large, like galaxies,
planets, and people. Both kinds of physics work very well in their
own domains. But at the quantum level of reality, Newtonian
physics (the everyday laws of physics that we all know and
experience) breaks down.
So, where does consciousness operate where the laws of physics
break down? In the lucid dream state. As all dreamers are aware,
physical laws like gravity, and linear time do not rule the
dreamworld. The discovery of parallel universes (and perhaps
parallel selves) may be as close as your dreams.
Granted, dreams (both lucid and non-lucid) are populated with
symbols - personal and archetypal - that relate solely to the
dreamer. Beliefs, fears, emotions, and moods, can colour and
distort dream experience.
But what about the instances of dream psi (psychic phenomena),
like telepathy, clairvoyance, and mutual dreaming? Somehow,
information is getting through to the individual via the dream
state, albeit in a usually "coded" (symbolic) fashion.
Not because the information is "coded" to begin with, but because,
we usually tend to distort information and filter dream experience
through our beliefs and expectations. We layer meaning over
information Unless we are very clear about what is personal dream
symbolism, and what is "outside" information, the data (dream)
will need to be interpreted; the personal symbolic associations
peeled away to reveal the information beneath.
For instance, in the dreamstate you begin to access information on
a future event. However, perhaps you have very strong beliefs and
opinions concerning such an event, so your dreaming mind begins to
"free associate" with the information, conjuring up symbols and
meaning that are pertinent to you, personally, but cloud the
original "message".
I believe that psi dreams are far more common than most people
think for this very reason. I believe we are in touch with
"outside" information quite often, but colour what we
"tune into" with our own symbolism.
Seasoned lucid dreamers are not surprised when they instantly
create symbols in their dream by simply thinking of them, they are
not surprised when they want to manifest something and it easily
works. There is a very thin line between creation and perception
in the dreamstate (as there appears to be in the quantum level of
reality) - even if that creation/perception manifests in distorted
form.
If telepathy, clairvoyance, and mutual dreaming exist, it stands
to reason that other information - like communication with other
selves in other universes - may be accessible too. Perhaps all we
need to do is to be open to the idea, and be able to keep our
personal symbolism from clouding over the experience.
Metaphysics
The Seth material, information delivered by Jane Roberts while in
an altered state of awareness, is abundant with information
regarding parallel universes and parallel selves. Seth refers to
these as probable universes or probable realities, and probable
selves. He maintains that for every choice we make, the choice we
didn't make was actualized by a probable (parallel) self in a
probable (parallel) world. Our probable selves walk those roads
not taken.
Also according to Seth, we frequently interact with our probable
selves in the dreamstate, usually unaware that we do so:
"The dreamstate, however, does operate as a rich web of
communication between probable selves and probable existences."
The "Unknown" Reality
Volume One, Session 687
Having been interested in quantum theory, consciousness studies,
and lucid dreaming for many years, it was no surprise to (forgive
the pun:) "find myself" spontaneously interacting with other
selves in the dreamstate:
Hindu-Me
(May 19 1991) I'm in a cluttered bedroom. I realize it's a dream
so I get up and go out the bedroom door, to find something to do.
I see another bedroom door and decide to go through. In that room
I see a young woman sitting at a vanity in front of a mirror. She
is doing her hair and make-up, moving with quick and confident
strokes. I sit on her bed and watch her with wonder. I am very
surprised to see that she is me. I can hear the surprise in my own
voice as I say to her "Lucy?" She, on the other hand, is not too
surprised to see me. I notice that she has a red dot on her
forehead like some East Indian women wear. I watch her gestures so
that I'll know what I look like; how I look to others as opposed
to how I see myself in a mirror. She gets up and then lays down on
her stomach beside me on the bed. We then have a long conversation
(unfortunately, I could recall none of it when I woke). Toward the
end of our discussion I say to her, "I thought you were (the one
who went through that ordeal)." She looks a little surprised and
says, "I thought you were." We then realize that neither of us
experienced that particular reality, it was another "probable
Lucy". We stand up and embrace each other; I'm a little emotional
over the whole event.Then lucidity is lost and I am soon awake,
with a sense of relief, like a burden has been lifted from my
shoulders.
This was a fairly straight forward dream indicating communication
between parallel selves. The red mark on "parallel Lucy's"
forehead may not necessarily have an East Indian connection at
all, but may have been my dreaming minds translation (in symbolic
clothing) of "third eye" or psi communication. In other words,
communication at a level of consciousness other than my "ordinary"
dreaming consciousness. Regardless, some issue was resolved by
this communication, evidenced by the feelings of relief felt upon
waking.
Seth also maintains that probable selves often "lend each other a
helping hand", stating that you can "avail yourself to some extent
of abilities and knowledge possessed by these other probable
portions of your personality"1. You can draw on the psychological
strengths and abilities of our probable selves when necessary.
(And of course they can draw upon our skills as well.)
Circles of Selves
December 6 1995 - I go upstairs to my bedroom, but I see that my
door is different, made of very old wood. I try to open it,
suspecting that I'm dreaming, when it opens to another, and
another, and another door. I know I'm dreaming. I leave the
multiple doors and fly down the hall to a huge room, full of
mirrors on the walls. I see my reflections and I note the
symbolism of multiple me's, parallel me's, probable me's. Excited,
I shout out "Probable Me's! Probable Me's!" in the hope that the
reflected images will "come alive" and step out of the mirrors.
Almost immediately there is a lot of movement as "the me's" step
out of the mirrors and soon the room is full of moving people, but
they don't all look identical to me anymore. I try to spy a
"pregnant me" (something that I refuse to be in this life). I see
a pregnant woman with dark black curly ringlets. Then I see some
me's together in a circle and I get a sense of groups of me's
coming together to give each other healing, strength, to share
abilities and skills, etc. I want other groups to form too, and
soon see more me's gathered in circles. I then see one group
coming toward me; other me's with their arms around each other. I
don't immediately get "absorbed" into their circle, but I feel I
can join anyway, they'll make room. Just as this is about to
happen though, I wake.
In this example my dreaming mind appears to have used symbols of
multiple doors, mirrors, and reflections to alert me that I was in
contact with many parallel selves where we could all (on some
level) benefit from each other's knowledge, strengths, abilities,
and experiences. The symbol of "going upstairs" may well have
represented going up to "another level" of consciousness.
The following lucid dream, my favourite to date, seems to
indicates that my familiarity with parallel selves, and parallel
realities, is growing; even to the point where I hold a meeting on
the subject within the dreamstate!
Probability Meeting
May 15 1998 - (I am staying over at a friend's place.) I am in M's
living room. I realize that I'm dreaming. I go out into the small
hallway by the kitchen. I float, and fly up and down the small
hallway, wondering what I should do next. At some point I find a
small round mirror and, looking at my image and the room reflected
in it, I try to get inside the mirror to see what I'll find there.
After a few attempts I give up. I then look back into M's living
room. I am not surprised to see two K's, a few other me's, and one
or two other people. I know that I'm dreaming and am seeing
probable versions of people, myself included [from probable
realities]. I am not perturbed when some of them pop in and out of
existence. I don't let the "non-linearity" or "non consistancy"
bother me. I know that that is just an aspect of the state
(reality) we are in. Then I am standing on or above a large round
table. There are at least two me's, and two or more K's and
multiple other people as well as a couple, a man and a woman. I am
at a meeting, a "probabilities meeting." Expertly I quote (from
memory) from a Seth book, about learning to operate in the
probability system. In my mind I "see" the title of the book as
"The Search for Seth," but smiling, I remind myself that in "my"
reality those quotes come from a book titled "Seth Speaks." Some
of the other people here would have "The Search for Seth" in their
realities. I notice that the couple are not paying attention to
me. They seem unaware that I'm here, or perhaps more accurately,
unaware that they are here. Glancing around the table I become
curious as to how many people here are aware that they are
dreaming. I ask those who are listening how many of them realize
that they are dreaming right now. I'm pleased to see a few hands
go up, pleased also to see a me with her hand up. The couple
continue to talk between themselves, oblivious to their
surroundings. I am satisfied that at least some of us are
consciously present, and know that those who are not, are still
learning and participating here on at least some level of their
psyche. At the end of the meeting, we seem to be in a conga line,
dancing and having fun, the line moving like a wave. Someone falls
and we all laugh good-naturedly as the line collapses. Then it
seems I am waking. I have many false awakenings, but always catch
myself - even cheerfully saying at one point that it is like a
game to detect these false awakenings - and continue to dream
fully lucidly until I wake "for real."
Obviously, seeing multiple me's and multiple Ks was a good
indication that there were probabilities involved in this dream.
The "meeting" can be seen as a noun - a meeting, to a "place"
where we have all come together as a group, or as a verb - the
meeting of various probabilities, the coming together of probable
selves. I assume the meeting was successful since at the end of it
we were happy and dancing in a conga line. This "line" I believe
represents linear reality, and our each returning to our own
individual "time lines". The wavy motion of the line and the
"fall" near the end of the dream represents to me the "collapsing
of the wave function", a phrase from quantum theory that means
when an event is actualized from a field of probable events. The
multiple false awakenings experienced at the end of the dream may
indicate waking up in a series of probable realities before
eventually getting "home."
Why Explore Parallel Realities?
On a personal level, by exploring your parallel existences you can
indirectly experience those roads not taken, and look at the
outcomes of some of the "what if's" in your life. What if you had
moved to Paris when you had the chance, instead of going to
college? How might your life have turned out? You can gain
insights from the knowledge and experiences of your other probable
selves; tap into their strengths, skills, and abilities. You can
experiment with alternate behaviours, and different ways to solve
problems. With the added ability of lucid dreaming, you can learn
to participate more consciously in the act of choosing from
probable events and situations.
However, you don't have to be an accomplished lucid dreamer in
order to get a glimpse into your own personal probabilities. Non-
lucid dreams can offer valuable hints and clues that your dreaming
self is working with probabilities. Obvious symbols like mirrors,
reflections, twins, younger, older, or other selves, multiple
objects like doors or windows may indicate probable realities. Or,
you may have some other object that represents probabilities to
you that shows up in your dreams. Remember, they are your dreams,
so you will need to be familiar with your own dream symbols.
As many dream enthusiasts are aware, there are numerous inventions
and discoveries attributed to inspiration and solutions found in
dreams.
On a global level, what if the scientific researchers of the world
- the physicists, biologists, medical doctors, etc. turned their
vision away from their instruments and computers once in a while
and looked to their own dreams? With lucidity and determination
what marvels could they discover in the laboratories of their
minds?
What knowledge from parallel universes could be shared? Could
other selves hold the key to mysteries in our universe? Maybe what
is a mystery to us is old hat to them. Like a cure for cancer?
What if they could transmit to us via the dreamstate, or another
altered state of consciousness, help for some of our most pressing
problems like disease, war, hunger, the depletion of our natural
resources...?
Could we learn to minimize the "white noise" of our personal dream
symbols enough to pull relevant information into our awareness?
Could we discover a way to effectively and clearly communicate and
work with parallel selves on an ongoing, consistent basis? Could
we discover the new "laboratory of parallel universe
experimentation" where we study and learn about the nature of
reality and existence alongside our own parallel selves? Perhaps
there are some parallel universes where this possibility is
already a reality. If we could access such a universe, would we
then be able to comprehend the physics behind parallel universes?
I wonder just how many physicists are lucid dreamers, and if any
have ever tried to use their talents to unravel the marvelous
mysteries of parallel universes. Maybe you will discover something
new and wonderful as you explore and experiment in your own lucid
laboratory.
"As fantastic as it may sound, the "new physics" called quantum
mechanics posits that there exists, side by side with this world,
another world, a parallel universe, a duplicate copy that is
somehow slightly different and yet the same. And not just two
parallel worlds, but three, four, and even more. No less than an
infinite number of them. In each of these universes, you, I, and
all the others who live, have lived, will live, will have ever
lived, are alive."
Fred Alan Wolf, Starwave: Mind, Consciousness, and Quantum Physics
1Roberts, Jane. Seth Speaks, Session 566
Roberts, Jane. Seth Speaks. Bantam Books, 1984
Roberts, Jane. The "Unknown" Reality, Volume One. Bantam Books,
1989
Wolf, Fred Alan. Parallel Universes. New York: Simon and Schuster,
1990
Wolf, Fred Alan. Starwave: Mind, Consciousness, and Quantum
Physics. New
York: MacMillin Publishing Company, 1986
The Lucid Dream Exchange is a quarterly newsletter featuring lucid
dreams and lucid dream related articles and interviews. To
subscribe to The Lucid Dream Exchange send a blank email to:
TheLucidDreamExchange-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
You can also check us out at www.dreaminglucid.com
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X-ray Eyes and Heady Dreams
© 2004 Linda Lane Magallon
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Shared dreaming occurs when 2 or more people go to sleep with the
intent to meet one another in the dream state. Often, we carry
with us the idea that a dream meeting will be just like a meeting
in the waking state. The success of a meeting between sighted
people requires that we recognize each other by visual clues.
Using photographic technology, this is very easy to do. In the
material world, just compare the person standing in front of you
with her digital or analog image.
However, you can't bring photographic equipment into sleep. Even
REM monitors aren't imported into the dream state! Instead of the
camera eye, you must use your dream eye to realize your meeting.
And we tend to forget that our dreams aren't seen through two
material eyeballs; it's our non-physical eye that does the
"seeing." It's our third eye, our psychic eye, that perceives
while we slumber.
The third eye might be literally clairvoyant and, indeed, seem to
"see" just like our physical eyes "see" a current version of our
dreaming partner. But the third eye isn't limited to that
particular mode of perception. Oh, no. It can see horizontally,
into the past and future. It can see vertically, all the many
layers of self. And it can actually allow you to move diagonally
into the depths of being.
Thus, precognition and retrocognition can be part of dream
perception. So can telepathy, when we don't just "see" our
partner, we "read" her. And then there's empathy, when we "become"
her, walk in her moccasins, and "see" from her viewpoint. For
dreams, we aren't limited to the edge of reality; we may move far
beyond it.
Literal Clairvoyance
Let's start with the easiest case of identification: the waking
person, the clairvoyantly perceived, literal surface self. This is
the self that is most likely to appear at the beginning of any
attempt at shared dreaming, while we're still constrained by
waking bias.
During one of the mutual dreaming experiments I facilitated, The
Lucidity Project, a participant named John Echo was dreamt as "an
older, bald man wearing glasses." John confirmed that this picture
applied to him.
On the very first date of another project, Dreams10, one of the
group members was described this way, "The first person to
introduce herself to me calls herself Barbara Shor. The image I
have for her is middle aged (with) short curly blonde hair (the
color of straw), a little heavy." Barbara recognized this as an
accurate description of herself.
These project members had never seen their team members, never
exchanged photos, never received written or aural descriptions of
them until after they recorded their dreams. Psi verification is
fairly easy when strangers are dreaming with one another. But
suppose you already know your partner. Any dream image of her
might be day residue, a memory dragged in from the waking state,
to be used for your own purposes. That image could well be your
own projection; the dream in which it appears might not have
anything to do with your partner. So how can you tell if your
third eye is operative if you've already seen your partner with
material eyes?
For one group project, where people knew one another by sight, I
had everyone send me a photograph of themselves. I photocopied the
pictures, mixed up the copies and put each one into a white,
sealed envelope. Then I mailed the white envelopes within larger
manila envelopes, with instructions not to open the white
envelopes until after incubating and remembering a dream. A member
would put his sealed envelope under his pillow, then try to dream
of the particular person whose image it contained (without knowing
who it was, of course). He could confirm or disprove the accuracy
of his third eye after opening the envelope the next morning.
But what if, instead of a group, there's just the two of you?
Once, my partner spontaneously dreamt up a perfect solution to
this sort of dilemma. She didn't just dream about me; she dreamt
about someone I knew and she didn't.
The Dawning of Telepathy
20 years ago, Megan had this dream: "Linda Magallon brings a
friend to meet me. Her friend has dark, shoulder-length hair,
parted in the middle, slightly wavy to each side. Her face is
oval, long but not too narrow, and her lips are medium small.
Delicate bone structure. A bird-like person, very curious about
something I'm writing. Her skin is very fair. She's on the thin
side, but not skinny. I'm very busy writing, and not too social,
and I get the impression that I'm acting out the woman's
impression of me, even though I'd like to be more social."
Since Megan did not know who the friend was, she simply described
her. I recognized the literal representation of Jean Campbell
(author of *Dreams Beyond Dreaming* and now host of the ASD
Bulletin Board).
Then I did two things to confirm that this was a psi event. First,
I sent Jean's photograph to Megan. Megan wrote back, "From the
copy of the photo you sent me, it looks 90% like the person you
brought to see me in the dream. Only she was younger in the dream
and her hair was shoulder length. As I indicated, I perceived her
expectations of me to be that I was very withdrawn, and in my pre-
lucid state, I didn't resist them. I kept working and mumbled a
few things to her about what I was writing. She sat in front of me
and slightly to my right. Her 'feeling tones' were pleasant and
full of curiosity. I described this metaphorically as 'bird-like,'
- you know the way birds look at you, trying to figure out what
you're doing?"
Second, I sent Megan's dream and comments to Jean. Jean replied,
"The Megan dream just blew me away. I don't remember (being in)
the dream she's talking about, but her assessment feels pretty
right to me."
I'd like to point out that Megan didn't dream of Jean as her then-
current version. She dreamt of a still younger Jean. Perhaps you
might conclude that this was a case of retrocognition, seeing the
past instead of the present. But having researched hundreds of
mutual dream reports, my vote is for telepathy. I don't think
Megan saw Jean's outer image, past, present or future. Rather,
Megan picked up Jean's ideal image of herself, the self we think
we are or wish we could be. Megan was reading Jean's perception of
herself, how she imagined herself to be.
I still dream of myself with dark hair, even though my hair has
been white for the past couple of years. Sometimes, it's a shock
to see a white-haired woman looking back at me from the mirror.
That's not how I "see" myself at all! It's not surprising to me
that people would dream my hair a rainbow of colors. Over the
course of time, I've tinted my hair every natural shade. Some of
my partners' perceptions have been quite clairvoyant of my
physical head. But I also have a vivid imagination, plus I've
dreamt myself in any number of hair hues, too. It's often hard to
confirm that a partner has been using telepathy to perceive
something I've imagined during the day. Or it was, until I started
paying attention to my daydreams; trying to remember them or
making quick notes for later review.
However, telepathy can be very obvious if the evidence shows up in
a set of paired dreams. Once I dreamt of gazing at myself in a
mirror and was bemused to discover that my hair was colored
blonde. That same night my partner dreamt of me as a blonde. At
the time, I had brown hair. In the waking state, that is, not the
dream.
Empathy
This is my dream from another one-on-one experiment, where I
pictured someone known to my partner but unknown to me: "I am
driving up a four-laned causeway, with no sides, so fast that I
fear once I get to the top, I'll rush too quickly down the
opposite side. Fortunately, at the top, the road levels out and I
can moderate my speed. I do this twice, like an amusement park
ride. Then, as I go downhill, the road narrows into two lanes. At
the bottom "T", I turn right and the road becomes a single lane.
People have left their cars behind and are evacuating their
bicycles. One woman's small white bike is buried next to the curb
of the road; a bald-headed man's bike is hidden behind some dirt."
My partner, Kyla, dreamt, "I am traveling somewhere with Steve.
We're riding bicycles. We stop to make a repair. There are lots of
people around us at the curbside Ð people from our past. Everyone
is very friendly and helpful."
Kyla's dream included the same kind of "bicycle" event as mine.
There was no indication that we saw one another, though. Instead
of meeting, we were meshing. This is a very common reaction to
shared dreaming. When we plumb the depths of being, when we move
ever closer to each other, we are not constrained by the edges of
the physical body. Or the dream body. We meld with one another. We
dream with one another, as if it's our own dream. Sometimes the
melding is balanced; we both contribute our equal share to the
common dream. More often, one person is dreaming his dream, when
the second comes along and "peeks over his shoulder," so to speak.
Except she's usually not aware of him or his shoulder! She moves
into his position, his "mindspace," and dreams her version of his
dream. If this was true for Kyla and me, who was dreaming whom?
Well, I have ridden a bicycle, but it had been several years. I
hadn't been around a bald-headed man for some time. The landscape
was unfamiliar, but that's usual, since I rarely dream carbon
copies of my recent physical environment. I hadn't been imagining
anything similar, either. The dream particulars could have been
all my "stuff," but I really didn't know.
But Kyla was certain. "The 'fast hill driving' is a long term
dream image of mine," she wrote me. "The causeway is one of my
transition areas. I've been on it in many different forms and
dreams over the years. There is always some flavor of danger/high
energy Ð a sense that I must flow with the pattern to get safely
through. Nothing 'unsafe' has ever happened to me though. And
Steve IS bald."
An Invitation
If you would like to read more about psi and shared dreaming,
check out the ASD Psyberconference. My own paper, "The Mystery of
the Missing Mutual Dreamers" is posted at
http://members.aol.com/dreamartscience/mystery/missing.html
http://members.aol.com/caseyflyer/flying/dreams.html (Dream
Flights)
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The Lucidity Continuum
E. W. Kellogg III, Ph.D.
© 1994
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(First presented at the Eighth Annual Conference of The Lucidity
Association, in Santa Cruz, June 28, 1992)
Picture: Lucid Continuum Spectrum by Ed Kellogg, Ph.D.
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/lcl_specturm.jpg
ABSTRACT: Many researchers define a lucid dream as one in which
dreamers realize, however vaguely, that they dream while they
dream. However, in dream-life as in waking-life, lucidity ranges
across a continuum, and may depend on a number of factors. These
include the ability to think clearly, the ability to remember, the
power to control the dream, the feeling of embodiment, reality
tone or vividness, the emotional content of the dream, and the
sense of self of the dreamer. Despite the many factors involved,
the experience of lucidity depends most closely on the interaction
of two factors that together determine the freedom of choice
experienced by the dreamer in the dream. The first corresponds to
clarity of thought and perception, and the second with the power
to control the dream. By looking at the degree to which a dreamer
has made covert assumptions overt, and at the degree to which the
dreamer can act on this knowledge, one can evaluate dreams on a
scale that runs the gamut from ordinary dreaming to super-
lucidity. The author has developed a series of maps of
consciousness that illustrate the differences between many
different kinds of both lucid and non-lucid dreams.
INTRODUCTION
What exactly do dreamworkers mean by the term lucidity? In
common usage, one might define it as an aspect of awareness
characterized by clear perception and understanding. Many
researchers define a lucid dream as one in which dreamers realize,
however vaguely, that they dream while they dream. Although dream
lucidity by accepted definition depends most strongly on the
awareness of dreaming, a number of other factors also play
important roles. These include such parameters as the ability to
think clearly, the ability to remember, the power to control the
dream, the feeling of embodiment, the reality tone or vividness of
the dream, the emotional content of the dream, and the sense of
self of the dreamer.
For the moment, let us take lucidity in the limited sense to mean
a mental state characterized by clarity in thought and perception.
I have found that I can evaluate this best in a dream by looking
at the degree to which the dreamer has an overt awareness of the
complex of previously unquestioned assumptions that comprise what
phenomenologists call the natural attitude towards the world.
Basically, this meta-schema includes such judgments as that we
live physically as human beings in "objective reality", that
physical objects exist independent of our awareness of them, that
events juxtaposed in space-time exist in some sort of a cause and
effect relationship, and that we experience a "physical universe"
directly and without significant distortion, etc. Ordinarily,
dreamers continue to apply this natural attitude to their
experience while dreaming. By looking at the degree to which I
have made such covert assumptions overt, I can evaluate the degree
of lucidity attained.
In ordinary dreams, I usually make a covert global judgment that:
(dream experience) = (waking physical reality experience). In a
minimally lucid dream, one gains a conscious awareness of this
judgment and then replaces it with another judgment in line with
one's cultural or personal prejudices about the nature of dreams.
For example:
1. (dream experience) = (the purely subjective projections of
one's sleeping brain); or
2. (dream experience) = (an independently existing spirit world);
or
3. (dream experience) = (a parapsychological realm with both
subjective and objective elements); or any number of other
possibilities. Once made, the judgment often becomes covert and
unquestioned.
Some western researchers believe that an unquestioning acceptance
of the currently popular neurophysiological theory about the
nature of dream experience, as summarized in judgment #1,
constitutes full lucidity. To me, such a limitation and
definition seems both naive and premature. Ironically, current
neurophysiological theory supports this view as it proposes that
each of us lives in a virtual reality regardless of our state of
awareness, whether waking or sleeping. This theory posits that
each of us do not, indeed can not, directly experience objective
physical reality, but only our own, hypothetically more or less
adequate, mental representation of it. If so, then all of the
physical world (including one's physical brain) becomes a dubious
construct known only by inference, as we can only confirm its
existence indirectly. As Stephen LaBerge (1985) wrote in his
book, Lucid Dreaming:
"The dream body is our representation of our physical body. But
it is the only body that we ever directly experience. We know, by
direct acquaintance, only the contents of our minds. All of our
knowledge concerning the physical world, including even the
assumed existence of our "first", or physical bodies, is by
inference."
By most definitions, a lucid dreamer must at least understand that
his or her experience does not take place in an objective,
physical world. However, even the major insight that (dream
reality waking physical reality) only begins the task of
unmasking assumptions, as the dreamer may still operate through a
residuum of unquestioned beliefs and judgments. For example, I may
dream of my brother Scott, yet even on realizing that I dream, I
might naively continue to identify the (dream Scott) with the
(physical reality Scott) without qualification. I do this despite
the fact that the two may even differ greatly in appearance.
Rather than simply replacing one set of unexamined beliefs with
another, from a phenomenological viewpoint true lucidity requires
first gaining an overt awareness of one's beliefs, and then after
suspending judgment in them, shifting the focus of one's attention
to the apodictical realm of the directly experienced (Kellogg,
1989). Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), the founder of the
phenomenological movement called this fundamental shift in
perspective the epoché, or phenomenological reduction, (see
Husserl, 1973, Natanson, 1973, and Zaner, 1970), and I will use
brackets [ ] in this paper to indicate examples of its use ( e.g.
[Scott] rather than Scott).
A detailed description of the epoché lies beyond the scope of
this paper, but for demonstration purposes try to question whether
at this moment you really experience this presentation in an
objective physical reality. Consider seriously some
alternatives. For example, you may find yourself caught up in a
very realistic dream, hallucinate due to a hypnotic suggestion or
a mind altering drug, or in these days of advanced technology,
undergo unknowingly exposure to an advanced virtual reality set-up
in cyberspace. If you find this difficult, you may want to read
Tart's (1986) presentation on "Consensus Trance: The Sleep of
Everyday Life" to get a better idea of some of the inner
constraints that may prevent you from accomplishing this exercise.
None of these possibilities seems likely, but if you can move
beyond the naive certainty of the natural attitude, you can
recognize at least a theoretical possibility and can, in fact,
doubt. Tholey's (1983) successful approach to inducing lucid
dreams through the development of a "critical reflective attitude"
in ordinary waking life, wherein one asks: "Am I dreaming or
not?", also approximates the beginning of a movement towards the
"phenomenological attitude" that results from the straightforward
application of the epoché.
If you can shift your focus to the realm of direct experience
after suspending judgment, you can complete the process of the
phenomenological reduction. After the epoché, both "Waking
Physical Reality" (WPR) and "Dream Reality" (DR) become only
special cases of a more general "Experiential Reality" (ER).
Regardless of how you wish to explain your present experience
(WPR, DR, hypnotic imagery, etc.), the [experience] remains. The
epoché can allow one to move towards greater lucidity in ordinary
waking life, and as such it can serve as both a model and a
preparation towards the development of lucidity in one's dream
life. When I perform the epoché my whole attitude towards the
lifeworld changes, as dramatically as it does when I "wake up" in
a dream. Both dream lucidity and the epoché require an awareness
of formerly unconscious judgments in order to occur, and both can
proceed more or less adequately in each particular circumstance.
MAPPING TERRITORIES
I normally recall 3 to 5 dreams per night, and have written down
and indexed well over 7,000 dreams. Of these dreams I've
categorized 500 or so as lucid to a greater or lesser degree. The
"maps of consciousness" presented here describe my own experiences
in the "lucidity continuum", and do not depend upon, or derive
from, the experiences of other lucid dreamers. Even so, my work
has received some consensual validation in the sense that other
lucid dreamers with whom I have shared my maps have generally
found value in them as diagnostic and descriptive tools.
Figure 1
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure1.JPG
To begin, I must first present a basic diagram of how I ordinarily
experience myself. In Figure 1 I've diagrammed a relevant two
dimensional section of my four dimensional consciousness process.
For present purposes, thinking, feeling, and knowing each
corresponds to a different depth in intentionality. By
intentionality I mean the fundamental act by which consciousness
directs itself at something within experience. Simplistically, by
thinking I mean that aspect of myself that labels, and works with
abstractions; by feeling that aspect which attributes meanings and
significance to things; and by knowing, that aspect of creativity
that structures pure experience. These three "levels" coexist in
a hierarchical order, with thinking as the most superficial
(closest to the "outside" world), feeling occurring at greater
depth, and with knowingness occurring at the greatest depth,
closest to the functioning of what I experience as my essential
source-self. Each level contains many different aspects, and I
have delineated some of these in the "Lucidity Correlates"
questionnaire that I developed included as Appendix A.
Let me try and make this clear by example. "Looking across the
room I see a chair next to the doorway". In perceiving the chair,
I see it first as a particular structure or form, and
differentiate it from my experience as a whole; I impose meaning
on the form, and see it as a stationary object, made out of wood,
on which a person can sit, etc. I understand this at a glance
without words. Finally in my thinking I may label this object a
"chair" or more specifically as a "ladderback shaker style chair".
All of this occurs automatically and routinely, and with little
apparent conscious effort. We take this tremendous activity for
granted, and even talk about consciousness as "passive"! Try the
exercise for yourself on a variety of objects paying attention to
how you intend the structure, the meaning, and finally the
labeling of a particular object. At each level of intentionality
we can make choices about how we intend an object, what we choose
to call it, how we choose to use it, and even how we choose to
perceive it. If you have trouble "restructuring" an object, look
at Figure 2, and notice how the object perceived changes depending
upon whether you "view" the figure from above or below, as a
three-dimensional cube or as a two-dimensional diagram. In a very
demonstrable sense each of us creates, or more specifically
intends, our own reality. Husserl termed this automatic, and many
layered making sense out of the world functioning intentionality.
As I'll describe below, the operation of functioning
intentionality can change dramatically in the dream state.
Figure 2
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure2.JPG
THE LUCIDITY CONTINUUM
ORDINARY WAKING (Figure 3)
With this as a necessary prologue, we can now look at the figures
that present the "maps of consciousness" associated with
different stages of the lucidity continuum, from "awake" to
"asleep". Figure 3 portrays my ordinary waking consciousness, and
we will begin by studying its schematics in detail. The area
inside of the parabola represents my field of consciousness, and
the area outside corresponds to physical reality. The
transparency or opaqueness of the limiting line of the parabola
indicates my awareness or non-awareness of the physical world.
The illuminated area within the parabola represents the light of
awareness that defines my experienced self and the functioning
available to it, in this case mostly cognitive. Oddly enough, no
matter how dramatically my sense of self changes, the essence of
self (source-self on the diagram) does not appear to change. In
waking physical reality (WPR), I usually have my identity focus
and "center of gravity" in the thinking levels; e.g. feelings
happen to me, and I have little direct conscious control over
them. The shaded area corresponds to the "unconscious" of the
experienced self as presently constituted. Please note that this
does not mean unconscious in any other sense.
Figure 3
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure3.JPG
Before continuing further, I need to point out that the "bubble of
awareness" that portrays the sense of self in actuality
continually shifts and changes: amoebalike, it extends
pseudopodia of awareness, "making the unconscious conscious".
Although this may sound esoteric, we do it all the time. A
moment's attention on the previously unnoticed sensations of your
rear end against the chair, or of the memory of your second grade
teacher's face should establish this fact adequately. Thus,
although I will characterize a particular dream as predominantly
sub-lucid, semi-lucid, etc., lucidity varies from moment to
moment to a greater or lesser degree. Due to the limitations of
the medium, each figure presented here can only depict an averaged
approximation to the predominant mode of consciousness that it
portrays.
Note: In the dream accounts to follow I will use quotation marks
( ' ' )to indicate obvious discrepancies in identification with
WPR standards, noticed after waking up from the dream upon later
reflection. For example, if I dream of my friend Dave, and if
the dream character did not even particularly look like him, I
will denote this dream character as 'Dave'. On the other hand, if
I denote the dream character as [Dave] using brackets, this means
that while dreaming I not only noticed any discrepancies but that
I suspended judgment in the metaphysical identity of the dream
character, but focused instead on what I directly experienced.
Figure 4
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure4.JPG
ORDINARY DREAMING (Figure 4)
In dream reality (DR), my center of gravity shifts to the feeling
level. In ordinary dreaming I have very limited use of my
thinking aspect, and have very little memory of the ordinary state
of affairs of my WPR existence, including my name, address, age,
and even physical body type.
EXAMPLE:
"As a 'little boy' in an Austrian city - grabbed and imprisoned by
'Christopher Lee', a government agent, who feels convinced that I
know some scientific secrets from an old professor who just died.
I don't, but he remains darkly convinced. I dive into a river to
escape - make it to an island park, but guess my 'red' hair will
get me noticed and captured. Later, I get captured again, now as
a 'little black boy' - I try to contact information and a book of
magic falls from the shelves. I put a diagram on the board, and
put the paper protection spell under the desk top. Just in time.
'C.L.' comes in grabs my left hand and looks at the palm and
middle finger, as if he could read the secret he so desires there.
I tell him he has one year to tell me explicitly what he wants,
and that if he does, I will help him, but after that time I will
never help, as I have tolerated enough of his treatment and will
stand no more. He doesn't seem cruel or evil, just obsessed"
1/10/1990
Comment: While dreaming, my ability to critically reflect on my
experience using WPR standards deteriorates to a greater or lesser
extent depending upon the degree of lucidity attained. Even if
fully lucid I need to make a conscious effort not to jump to
conclusions about the nature and identity of dream objects. In
the case of ordinary dreams, my ability to notice discrepancies
between the dream and my ordinary WPR experience can seem
practically nonexistent. I can incarnate in bodies young or old,
male or female, human, animal, or alien, and find myself in
locales ranging from Arcturus to ancient Atlantis without noticing
anything in the least peculiar. Paradoxes, incongruities,
discontinuities, and anachronisms make little or no impression on
me. I act according to how I feel in the moment, and do little or
no thinking.
PRE-LUCID
In the dream, I notice some sort of bizarreness as unusual for
waking physical reality (WPR). Or I don't consider myself in
ordinary physical reality at all, although I realize almost none
of the implications and still misidentify the actual situation.
EXAMPLE:
"... time traveling into the future, I look in a paper for stock
quotations. I sit down and get interrupted by an inspection team
of 'Mormons' in black gowns. I tell them that I've come from the
past - but the paper has a July 24, 1939 date! I test my
abilities, and break off a piece of a heavy wooden table. They
try to restrain me, 'Angus' tries to stop me, and I beat him to a
pulp. Alarms go off and they release a red gas in the corridor to
poison me or knock me out. I break through a wall and get away."
5/3/89
Comment: Although not aware that I dreamed, I did notice some
discrepancies, and even thought to take advantage of the time
traveling situation to better my financial status. On the other
hand, I reacted emotionally and violently to an attempt at
restraint, and identify a dream character with a childhood enemy
named Angus, who looked nothing at all like him.
Figure 5
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure5.JPG
SUB-LUCID (Figure 5)
Although I vaguely realize that I dream, it does not even occur to
me to act differently based on this knowledge. I continue to
follow the dream "script": no conscious choice.
EXAMPLE:
"In a magic shop, a man offers magical objects in exchange for my
doing some as of yet unspecified task. My guide takes his time,
but I realize that he better hurry up and ask me the task before I
wake up. I get a cloak of invisibility - ornate, black cloth on
inside, embroidered white and red on the outside. Also brass arm
things, wicked looking, that I refuse as they would slow me up. I
see a battered Magica De Spell plastic doll 2-3 inches high with
green glasses, and ask if it comes with foof bombs - it does. He
throws one at me, like a combination cherry bomb/sparkler, not
very incendiary either. I return to WPR without ever having
learned the task." 10/16/90
Comment: In this case I knew that I dreamed, but did not
experience an increased freedom of choice because I had no
awareness of other choices. For example, it did not occur to me
to try techniques that have worked well for me in the past for
prolonging a lucid dream, despite my concern in this regard. I
followed the dream script not out of choice, but because I saw no
alternative course of action. I also assumed that these magical
objects would follow me to WPR, and did not remember that my past
experience in this regard has so far proven consistently
otherwise.
Figure 6
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure6.JPG
SEMI-LUCID (Figure 6)
I know that I dream, and although I still follow the dream script,
I can make new choices based on this awareness. For example, I
might choose to fly rather than walk.
EXAMPLE:
"... I see a huge (big as a house) steamroller, tank-car bearing
down on me as I stand in the middle of the street. Knowing that I
dream, I choose to face it and transform myself into a superhuman
state: my forearms bulge whitely with strength, as I expand and
densify - but the machine still dwarfs me. As the [machine] bears
down on me I don't know if I have changed enough to stop it, but I
stand resolute, and tear a hole right through it to the other
side, walking through the mass of metal as if I went through paper
maché." 3/6/90
Comment: Although my thinking still seemed a bit clouded, I
remember this dream with great fondness, in that I faced my fear
and triumphed over adversity. What choices I did make had power,
and depended upon my having an overt awareness of the dream state.
In this particular example of semi-lucidity I would draw the
"bubble of awareness a little differently then in Figure 6, by
extending it a little more deeply into knowing to depict the
increase in dream control.
Figure 7
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure7.JPG
LUCID (Figure 7)
I have the choice of following the dream script or not, can make
major choices based on awareness of my potentialities in the dream
state. For example, I might choose to try a dream experiment
instead of continuing the dream scenario, etc.
EXAMPLE:
"I find myself in a sort of 1960 blue Chevy, and wake up to
lucidity. I decide to try to use the [car] to go to [Mt. Shasta],
to meet Julie, as I've had problems flying long distances. The
dash has a computerized LCD display, and the [car] seems a sort of
disguised space vehicle. I have trouble punching in the controls,
but look for a voice operated control. However, before I take off
I seem to hear [Julie's voice] calling "Wait! Wait!" And I see
[Julie] rushing up to get in. She looks like Julie (WPR), but a
little dull eyed, and I suspect a substitute. I certainly don't
feel the presence that I've felt with others who seemed authentic.
So I decide to go to [Mt. Shasta] anyway to check out the site,
see if I can find a counterpart to the WPR Julie. Set the [car]
for hyperdrive, it takes off flying and after a few loops and
spins, I see an incredible view of the landscape below as it
rushes by, green and beautiful. If I do dream with Julie, she
should remember the view later when we compare dreams. The [car]
only travels a few hundred mph, and when I try to speed up I
return to WPR instead." 7/21/91
Comment: Lucidity in this case involved a fairly detailed
appreciation of the situation, and of an overt awareness of the
"substitution phenomenon" anomaly (Kellogg, 1985), which occurs
when dream characters, objects and locations display incongruities
with the WPR counterparts with which I identify them. In this
dream I tried to connect through a mutual dream with a friend of
mine who had actually gone to climb Mt. Shasta. She,
incidentally, had no recall of any corresponding dream.
Figure 8
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure8.JPG
FULLY-LUCID (Figure 8)
fully aware that I dream and of the location and state of my
physical body; I also clearly remember any lucid dream tasks that
I had earlier decided to try (lucid dream healing, intentionally
changing body form, precognition, etc.), and experience a high
level of dream control which gives me the power to do them.
EXAMPLE:
". . . I wake up in the [conference dormitory in Santa Cruz], a
'big barn like structure'. Lucid, I see a [nice looking woman in
her 30's with dark straight hair] come into [my room]. I assume I
may see another dreaming Association for the Study of Dreams
conference participant . . .I introduce myself and ask her name,
she says something like Spiral Gale. I tell her I know that we
dream and stick my hand through the door to demonstrate. I go out
in the corridor looking for other [ASD dreamers], aware that I may
only meet subjective dream characters but eager to gather possible
consensual evidence for mutual dreams . . ." 6/24/92
Comment: In this dream I overtly realized not only that I
dreamed, sleeping brain, or that it might exist in an objective
sense comparable to physical reality, and as such fall subject to
consensual validation. I focused upon the experiential reality in
which I lived, and remained overtly aware of the assumptions that
I made when I identified a dream person with a possible physical
reality counterpart, etc. Despite the high degree of success in
applying the epoché, I failed to notice that the [dream dormitory]
did not look at all similar to the [physical reality dormitory] in
which I had gone to sleep. This illustrates that even when fully
lucid, the automatic functioning of my capacity for critical
reflection may still seem impaired (as compared to WPR standards)
with regard to objects not in the forefront of my attention.
Figure 9
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure9.JPG
FULLY-LUCID BUT POWERLESS (Figure 9)
fully aware that I dream and of the location and state of my
physical body; also remember any lucid dream tasks that I had
earlier decided to try, but have little or no control over dream
phenomena.
EXAMPLE:
" . . lying on the bed, I hear a voice say "lets test him with a
few childhood experiences." I hear a child's awful shriek. I
roll over onto floor and check the bed for my (physical) body (I
had intended to have an OBE). I can feel or see none, but
something seems wrong. I go into the kitchen, try to turn on
light but it will not go on. I conclude that I have a lucid
dream. Continue to test and go into the [bathroom]; again I can
not turn on the light. So I will the [fluorescent lights] to go
on (noticing the discrepancy between them and their WPR
counterparts) - they flicker, then go on. Bathroom much larger,
in blue, covered with objects, toys, etc. I remember what the
voice said. This whole experience has the atmosphere of
nightmare. I look at the door, and the opening has shrunk. I
think "No you don't!" and put my shoulder in the door, but it has
become too small to let me through. I did not want to get shut
up in this cramped space, and somehow make it into the hall.
Above my head a grotesque doll, like a ventriloquists dummy,
drops down and hangs in front of me. I pick it off and wonder if
it would
speak or walk around. I threw it in the [bathroom] with
other junk, broke the mirrors on either side of me, feeling put
upon and trying for control of this dream. I looked at my [hand]
which hurt, but remained uncut, and wondered if a cut could make
the transfer to the waking world as a psychosomatic occurrence. I
ran against a wood-panelled wall of the [apartment], denting it in
a spot, and continued outside to the [front porch], now high above
the ground with a lot of stairs leading down. I knew that I
dreamed but I felt heavy and physical. Decided to jump, but on
looking over the side felt a great fear of the height and turned
back. Again I felt imposed upon, and determined to face this
fear, and going back a little ways, I turned and jumped. At
first I felt the fear of falling, but fought that and just before
hitting bottom pulled up and started flying . . ." 10/1/72
Comment: I had to go back in my records to 1972 to find a dream of
this type, and even this example doesn't quite qualify, because I
did achieve a measure of dream control at the end.
I include this dream state not because it seems a typical one for
me, but because others who have a fear of lucid dreaming, or feel
concerned about its dangers, cite nightmarish dreams of this type
as reasons why people should eschew lucid dreaming in general.
In doing so, they "throw out the baby with the bathwater". The
experience of lucidity as a variable aspect of consciousness
depends most closely on two factors that interact to determine the
degree of freedom of choice experienced by the dreamer in the
dream. The first corresponds to clarity of thought and
perception, and the second with the power to control the dream.
For the most part I find these two variables covariant: if one
increases, so does the other. I enjoy nightmarish dreams because
I've learned to use them as springboards to that broadening of
consciousness that constitutes a greater and more authentic sense
of self.
Figure 10
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure10.JPG
SUPER-LUCID (Figure 10)
I have an awareness of self as an integrated whole: self-
remembering. Knowing-feeling-thinking aspects of self work in
harmony. I feel an extraordinary sense of self, access to memory,
and an expanded and mindful awareness of the many possible courses
of action available to me in lucid dream reality as compared to
waking physical reality.
EXAMPLE:
". . . [I fly out the front window to perform my dream tasks
(remembering clearly that I wanted to experiment with the effects
of kabbalistic words in dream reality). I race very fast while
chanting . . . and end up in a sort of grassy valley, lose 3/4 of
vision, but hang onto kinesthetic sensations until I see - find
myself in a cubic room 10'x10'x10' lined with yellow pine. I
decide to continue chanting, repeat the Rafael chant, then chant
to Ra as I see a wall hanging (papyrus?) that looks vaguely
Egyptian, and I think of Ra as a god of healing. I then chant
Geburah and Gedulah while visualizing red and blue energy spheres
in my consciousness above me: visualization seems clear - did not
take the place of DR environment visually perceived, looked and
felt similar (but increased in quality) to visualization in WPR.
Also chanted Alef while visualizing this path of self-integration
between geburah and chesed. I don't feel much happening, but like
doing the chants. I invoke a mirror to see myself: it appears
when I turn around. I look like an extremely young, handsome,
muscular, and vigorous beast like creature covered almost every
where with dark long hair everywhere except for some white on my
chin and forehead. I look audacious. A young woman, covered
with long dark hair like me asks if I've finished. I say "First,
let me ask you your name". She says "Tia" or "Teeda" and invites
me to come in and meet the others like us. I feel extremely
powerful, go into a large lecture hall with bleachers - the
others look like me but smaller, weaker. I see the woman
presiding, and jump easily to the top of the bleachers. An
overweight, middle-aged man with a turban climbs up the bleachers
and tries to put a spell on me. "Go to sleep. You feel sleepy" he
says. Angered at his presumption, I project an energyball from my
right hand and push it at him. He looks fearful and realizes
that he has made a miscalculation, (that he did not confront a
mere animal, but a powerful integration of both higher and lower
aspects of self). I push him down the bleachers to the floor,
overcoming him. Fearful and stunned, he remains on the ground as
I leap back up and sit down next to a young beast-woman who says
to her companion "Oh, I didn't know Godzilla sat here," sounding
half-mocking, but also, like the others, very impressed with my
prowess.]" 1/16/93
Comment: With lucid dreaming the breadth of consciousness of my
self increases, even though the "center of gravity" remains in
feeling, identity focus expands to include both thinking and
knowing aspects. In fact I feel much more myself when fully lucid
than I do ordinarily in WPR. My sense of self increases, as the
"bubble of awareness" expands both into the "knowing" and
"thinking" realms into areas that I do not normally access. This
dream had a profound effect on my behavior for weeks afterward - I
felt more vital and alive, and much more in tune with my physical
environment.
Figure 11
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure11.JPG
POWER DREAMING (NOT-LUCID) (Figure 11)
In power dreaming, although I have little or only limited use of
my thinking aspect, and very little memory of the ordinary state
of affairs of my WPR existence, I exhibit an extraordinary control
of dream phenomena. I can fly, walk through walls, use "the
force," and perform superhuman feats with the greatest of ease.
EXAMPLE:
"In the evening, I walk across the gray water of San Francisco Bay
to a small resort island. I encounter a young woman and a woman
hotel manager. . . I ask for directions to San Francisco and the
older woman obviously doubts that I can make it. I show her my
levitation, how I can walk on water. The younger slim woman
obviously feels fascinated with me, and wants to learn my magic."
3/20/90
Comment: Many people enjoy dreams of this type most of all. They
include such categories as flying dreams, dreams of oneself as
superhuman and displaying amazing psychic, or magical powers, etc.
In such dreams I have a great degree of power to control dream
phenomena, but I find my freedom of choice limited by not having
the lucidity necessary to see possible choices.
CONCLUSION
As stated earlier, the experience of lucidity as a variable aspect
of consciousness depends most closely on two factors that interact
to determine the degree of freedom of choice experienced by the
dreamer in the dream. The first corresponds to clarity of thought
and perception, and the second with the power to control the
dream. However, in actual fact lucidity involves far more than
two factors. The diagrams make clear that for me increased
lucidity corresponds with an expansion of the "bubble of
awareness", a widening of consciousness (see John Wren-Lewis,
1985) that brings about a functional integration of aspects of
self. Thus, in a fully lucid state (Figure 8) one may push the
envelope of the bubble to become a knowing-feeling-thinking self,
rather than primarily as a thinking-self (Figure 3) or a feeling-
self (Figure 4). The bubble of awareness represents the
"conscious self" for any particular state. Obviously this
"conscious self" can vary markedly from the "conscious self" with
which I ordinarily identify in wpr. Because of the phenomenon of
state specific learning, this could explain the poor dream recall
experienced by many, as the result of "bubbles of awareness" for
the states of "ordinary waking" and "ordinary dreaming" that have
little or no overlap. This may also explain why lying comfortably
in bed after waking up (in an intermediary state) can facilitate
the development of dream recall. Empirical research could
validate portions of this model for the general population.. For
example the model would predict a very low level of cognitive
(thinking) elements in the dreams of non-dream recallers when
awakened in a sleep lab when compared to those with high recall,
who would in turn have a lower level of such cognitive elements
than frequent lucid dreamers.
The "Lucidity Continuum" comprises the range through which the
"bubble of awareness" that represents the sense of self expands
and contracts within a field of potential consciousness. The
examples given here only illustrate some of the more common types
of "lucid" dreams that I have experienced. I have also used these
maps to model other states of consciousness, such as "Lucid and
SuperLucid Waking" (Figures 12 and 13),
Figure 12
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure12.JPG
Figure 13
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure13.JPG
"'Pure' Consciousness" (Figure 14),
Figure 14
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure14.JPG
and "Waking 'Pure' Consciousness"(Figure 15)
Figure 15
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure15.JPG
Figure 16, "'Absolute' Lucidity'", illustrates a theoretical goal
towards which I aim.
Figure 16
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure16.JPG
In more complicated diagrams, I have also usefully divided the
parabola from right to left (with a synthesizing function on one
side, and an analyzing function on the other), in order to
localize other factors related to lucidity (see Appendix A) on the
diagram. Despite the fact that I have portrayed the "bubble of
awareness" as symmetrical and static, I did so only because of the
limitations of the printed page. In actuality, it continually
shifts and changes: asymmetric and amoebalike, it extends
pseudopodia of awareness, that continually changes the sense of
self in many ways (Figure 17).
Figure 17
http://improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/Figure17.JPG
To understand the "Lucidity Continuum" better, one could imagine a
series of these diagrams processed into an animated cartoon where
each figure exists only as an individual frame of an ongoing
process. The sense of self fluctuates widely, but not randomly,
predominantly conforming to certain configurations created through
habit, just as we have preferred body postures created through
habit. The thick and thin boundaries questionnaire developed by
Hartman (1990) may serve as a useful diagnostic aid in accessing
details of this process in individuals.
Although the basic "map of consciousness" presented here may not
prove universally applicable, I have used it to portray many kinds
of lucid or non-lucid experience, and as such I have found it a
very useful tool. My maps have received some consensual
validation in the sense that lucid dreamers with whom I have
shared them have generally found them valuable as a means of
understanding their own experiences. Lucid dreamers need not
limit themselves to words alone in describing their dreams, and
the states of consciousness in which they experience them.
Sometimes a picture can say what words can not. I hope that my
efforts in this direction will inspire other explorers of the
dream state to "map the territory" for themselves.
REFERENCES
Hartmann, Ernest (1990). Thin and thick boundaries: personality,
dreams, and imagination. In Mental imagery, edited by R.G.
Kunzendorf, new York, Plenum Press, 71-78.
Husserl, Edmund (translated by Dorion Cairns) (1973a). Cartesian
meditations: An introduction to phenomenology, The Hague,
Netherlands, Martinus Nijhoff.
Kellogg III, E.W. (1985). The substitution phenomenon. Dream
Network Bulletin, 4(5), 5-7
Kellogg III, E.W. (1989). Mapping territories: A phenomenology of
lucid dream reality. Lucidity Letter, 8(2), 81 - 97.
LaBerge, Stephen (1985). Lucid dreaming. Los Angeles, Jeremy P.
Tarcher, Inc., 219
Natanson, Maurice (1973) Edmund Husserl: Philosopher for infinite
tasks. Evanston, Ill.:Northwestern University Press.
Tart, Charles (1987). Waking up: Overcoming the obstacles to human
potential, Boston, New Science Library, Shamballa Publications,
Inc.
Tholey, Paul (1983). Techniques for inducing and maintaining lucid
dreams. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 57, 79-80.
Wren-Lewis, John (1985). Dream lucidity and near-death experience
- a personal report. Lucidity Letter, 4(2), 4-12
Zaner, Richard M. (1970). The way of phenomenology. New York,
Western Publishing Company, Inc.
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APPENDIX A
lucidity correlates*
Although lucidity appears to correlate most strongly with the
awareness of dreaming and with the implications that follow this
awareness, a number of other factors also play important roles.
please rate your experience in the lucid dream on a scale from 0
to 5 in each of the following specific areas:
THINKING: confers labels
LABELING. MY ABILITY TO CORRECTLY LABEL OBJECTS SEEMED:
___ 0 NONEXISTENT
___ 1 POOR
___ 2 FAIR
___ 3 GOOD - EQUIVALENT TO IN WPR.
___ 4 EXCELLENT - BETTER THAN IN WPR.
___ 5 EXTRAORDINARY.
ABILITY TO THINK. MY THINKING ABILITY IN THE LUCID DREAM
SEEMED:
___ 0 NONEXISTENT
___ 1 POOR
___ 2 FAIR
___ 3 GOOD - EQUIVALENT TO IN WPR.
___ 4 EXCELLENT - BETTER THAN IN WPR.
___ 5 EXTRAORDINARY.
EGO INVOLVEMENT. IN THE LUCID DREAM I SEEMED:
___ 0 TOTALLY PASSIVE - THINGS JUST HAPPENED.
___ 1 VAGUELY ACTIVE, BUT MOSTLY WENT WITH THE FLOW.
___ 2 SOMEWHAT ACTIVE, MADE A FEW CHOICES.
___ 3 AS ACTIVE IN MAKING CONSCIOUS CHOICES AS IN wpr
___ 4 MORE ACTIVE THAN IN WPR.
___ 5 EXTREMELY ACTIVE. MANY CONSCIOUS CHOICES AND BEHAVIORS.
MEMORY. DURING THE LUCID DREAM I WOULD RATE MY MEMORY AS:
___ 0 NONEXISTENT
___ 1 POOR
___ 2 FAIR
___ 3 GOOD - EQUIVALENT TO IN WPR.
___ 4 EXCELLENT - BETTER THAN IN WPR.
___ 5 EXTRAORDINARY.
FEELING: confers meaning
EMOTIONAL TONE. IN THE LUCID DREAM I FELT:
___ 0 NEUTRAL - NO EMOTION AT ALL.
___ 1 VAGUE EMOTION
___ 2 MILD EMOTION
___ 3 MODERATE EMOTION
___ 4 STRONG EMOTION
___ 5 OVERWHELMING EMOTION
WHAT KIND(S) OF EMOTION DID YOU EXPERIENCE DURING THE LUCID DREAM?
___ ANXIETY ___ FEAR
___ ANGER ___ SADNESS
___ CURIOSITY ___ PEACEFULNESS
___ A SENSE OF WELL-BEING ___ HAPPINESS
___ JOY ___ ECSTASY
___ OTHER (PLEASE DESCRIBE:
________________________________________)
SENSE OF EMBODIMENT. DURING THE LUCID DREAM I FELT:
___ 0 TOTALLY DETACHED - NO AWARENESS OF A DREAM BODY.
___ 1 DETACHED, OBSERVED MY DREAM BODY FROM THE OUTSIDE.
___ 2 VAGUELY AWARE OF MYSELF IN MY DREAM BODY.
___ 3 AS EMBODIED AS IN WAKING PHYSICAL REALITY.
___ 4 MORE EMBODIED THAN IN WPR.
___ 5 FULLY PRESENT IN MY DREAM BODY. AWARE OF MY DREAM BODY
IN GREAT DETAIL - IT FELT "REALER THAN REAL".
knowing-creating: confers structure
DREAM CONTROL. IN THE LUCID DREAM I HAD:
___ 0 NO CONTROL OF ANYTHING.
___ 1 MINIMAL CONTROL OF MY DREAM BODY AND DREAM
ENVIRONMENT.
___ 2 GOOD, BUT MUNDANE CONTROL OF DREAM BODY AND
ENVIRONMENT.
___ 3 SUPERIOR CONTROL - ABLE TO FLY, WALK THOUGH WALLS, ETC.
___ 4 "MAGICAL" CONTROL - COULD CHANGE DREAM BODY, DREAM
ENVIRONMENT MORE OR LESS AS I WISHED.
___ 5 EXTRAORDINARY CONTROL - MY EVERY WISH CAME TRUE
reality tone. THE DREAM EXPERIENCE SEEMED:
___ 0 TOTALLY UNREAL.
___ 1 SLIGHTLY REAL - LIKE A GOOD MOVIE.
___ 2 MODERATELY REAL.
___ 3 AS REAL AS ORDINARY WPR.
___ 4 EVEN MORE REAL THAN WPR.
___ 5 OVERWHELMINGLY REAL.
SENSE OF SIGHT. DURING THE LUCID DREAM I SAW:
___ 0 NOTHING.
___ 1 DETACHED, OBSERVED MY DREAM BODY FROM THE OUTSIDE.
___ 2 POORLY. VAGUE SHAPES AND DIM LIGHTING.
___ 3 AS CLEARLY AS IN WAKING PHYSICAL REALITY.
___ 4 CLEARLY IN SHARP DETAIL. VIVID COLORS.
___ 5 WITH SUPERNATURAL CLARITY - PSYCHEDELIC INTENSITY.
SENSE OF SELF. DURING THE LUCID DREAM I HAD:
___ 0 NO AWARENESS OF SELF, ONLY OF THE DREAM.
___ 1 VERY LITTLE SENSE OF SELF; LIKE WHEN I WATCH TELEVISION.
___ 2 MODERATE SENSE OF SELF - BUT "SPACEY" - NOT VERY "WITH
IT".
___ 3 SENSE OF SELF AS IN ORDINARY WPR.
___ 4 I FELT MORE REAL, MORE PRESENT THAN IN WPR.
___ 5 I FELT TRULY "MYSELF", MORE COMPLETE THAN EVER BEFORE.
* Note: the lucidity correlates given here comprise only a part of
the "Lucid Dream Healing Questionnaire" that I also presented as
part of a talk given at the Association for the Study of Dreams
Conference in Santa Cruz in 1992. Copies of this longer
questionnaire available from the author by request.
Address correspondence to:
E. W. Kellogg III, Ph.D
The Phenomenological Laboratory
P.O. Box 1019
Ashland, Oregon
Tel: (503) 535-7187
Email: alef1@msn.com
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Composing Poetry in Lucid Dreams
George Gillespie
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My first poems to be published in a national periodical in India
appeared in Imprint in June, 1978, although they were written
years earlier. I had written poetry all my life and read a lot of
poetry and about poetry. I had begun having lucid dreams (dreams
in which I know I am dreaming) spontaneously in 1975, and in 1978
I began a series of experiments in trying to create poetry while
dreaming lucidly. All the following text, except for what is in
brackets, comes directly from my dream journal. I include only the
occasions when I remembered, while dreaming, to do the poetry
experiment. All dreams occurred in the city of Hyderabad in South
India.
____________________
November 9, 1978. In the next known dreams I should make some
experiments on receiving poetry from the unconscious. [Before I
heard of the term "lucid dream," I had called such dreams "known
dreams" in my journal.] This would mean to become quiet as much as
possible and receptive and let a poem come if it will, as I would
do when awake. This sounds difficult since when awake, only when
the environment is amenable and I am in the proper mood and feel a
poem may come would I attempt it. When a dream becomes known it
would probably not at all be a proper calm environment suitable
for being receptive to poetry. Yet I must try it for what I may
learn.
I would not plan to erase the dream environment unless it were too
disturbing. I would not try to speak, but let poetry come
internally. Two lines would be sufficient to be both poetry and
not too much to remember when I wake up.
December 3. When I realized that the quantity of cake that I was
eating from my hand was growing, I realized I was dreaming. I
resisted continuing with the dream story. I looked around and saw
that I was walking along a path in the snowy woods. I stepped over
to lean against a tree in order to relax to wait for poetry to
come to me, but I woke up.
December 23. I walked toward the verandah of the building, holding
a child in my arms. The child apparently saw himself, and as I lay
him down, I said, "He can see himself, as in a dream." Then I
realized I was dreaming. I remembered about the poetry and relaxed
against one of the columns of the verandah. For a moment I waited
and then concentrated on what may come. I thought of two lines of
poetry, which I noticed did not rhyme, but which could have
prepared for later rhymes. I woke up and wrote down what I could
remember. It was:
"When in the night the waking dreams I extol
I hear the . . ."
There could be a mistake in there. It came to me as poetry comes
to me. I see these words as similar to what comes to me when I
compose poetry, but not as something which I would bother to write
down. As an example, if I had been awake, I would quickly have
replaced the word "extol." I don't believe I have ever used the
expression "waking dreams," but I see it as a real poetic
possibility [perhaps for lucid dreams]. The rhythm is pleasant
enough to retain. I have no idea what the meaning of the second
line was to be. But then, I do not always know what the meaning is
when I accept a line. I conclude that receiving poetry might be as
possible while dreaming as while awake. It might perchance be
easier. This was better than I expected.
December 31. I was dancing with a woman in a very musical dream,
when I realized I was dreaming. Although I was intensely
interested in dancing, I made myself stop. I leaned against a wall
for a firm relaxing and looked in a new direction. While I thought
of poetry, I noticed a woman leaning against a pole at a distance,
smiling at me.
I kept my eyes open and felt the poetry come, without any effort.
[In a lucid dream, I usually kept my eyes open in order not to
lose the visual image.] It was no different from when I do the
same when awake. A first line came, but I was not satisfied with
it and changed it perhaps by one word. Letting that be, I added a
second line which rhymed. I was satisfied with it, at least as an
initial composition and thought I should wake up to write it down.
It began to disappear, but I woke up and wrote it down.:
"Once the strange and overcoming night
Brought me ______ and to the light."
I could not remember it exactly. I knew that the two lines had the
same rhythm. I wrote it quickly knowing that it might not be
entirely correct. After writing, I felt it probably should have
been:
"Once the strange and overcoming night
[three beats] and brought me to the light."
It was a presentable poetic thought, the idea even being in
harmony with the poem of December 23. When I composed this time
and the last time, I did not think of what subject I would compose
on. I just accepted what came, judging it as it came. I had feared
that it would not be easy to suddenly drop everything and think
poetry. Yet both times some suitable lines came without any
trouble.
Last night's lines were acceptably beautiful, without cliché, and
original. Rhyming and other sound structures were acceptable. They
are not very clever rhymes, but appropriate. The word "brought"
adds consonance. Poetic obliqueness is there. The word
"overcoming" has multiple effect. "Night" and "light" are frequent
concepts in my waking poetry.
January 6, 1979. I saw a green towel hanging gracefully away from
the wall towards me rather than down. But I also felt that I was
standing on the wall, rather than on the floor. I was confused,
but it made me realize I was dreaming. I felt shaky and
disoriented. I thought that the only way to make myself
comfortable was to sit on the towel that draped outward, which I
did, feeling insecure. I got only one line of "poetry," which came
with a bit of force:
"When under the world the basements congeal . . ."
I then woke up.
This line must be related to my disorientation in the dream and
the feeling that what was below my feet was quite insecure.
Although subjectwise, this "poem" was different from the earlier
ones, it was again about my dream situation. I will choose a
subject for the next poem to be about, to see whether I can direct
the poetry a little more and get it away from the dream context. I
will still let it flow and not force it, but I will begin it by
thinking about horses, a subject I do not write poems about.
[ Another important element of this dream was the fact that the
towel I had seen in the dream was the actual towel hanging above
my sleeping head from the structure used for holding up my
mosquito net. This fact seems not directly related to the poetry
experiment.]
January 17. It was a dream, almost entirely forgotten, of former
times. In the thick green grass, I saw a power lawn mower. It was
such an anachronism, that I realized I was dreaming. I remembered
the poetry experiment. I moved forward and thought, "The Delhi
tree . . ." I had no time to develop or change the words. I woke
up.
February 24. Snow lay all around as I walked up the street,
uphill. Why did I have no books, if I was going to school? I must
have come from home, but I could not remember any home. So I
realized I was dreaming. I thought of poetry and knew that it was
to be about horses. I composed "black horse, white horse . . ." It
was two complete lines of poetry. However, I went on, forgetting
that I was dreaming and forgetting most of what I composed.
After further dreaming, I came out of a cellar and thought that
that was a roundabout way to go. Thereupon I again realized I was
dreaming. I remembered that I had earlier done the poem about the
black horse and the white horse. The tall grain that I was walking
through was distracting me, and I wanted to walk out of it a
little so that it wouldn't scrape me. I saw two deer nearby
eating. I began my poem, "Horsy, horsy," but I woke up.
When I woke up, all I could think of supposedly from the first
poetry work was "Black horse, white horse, racing and chasing."
However, "racing and chasing" was from Scott's "Lochinvar" which
we were discussing when I taught my English class yesterday, and
it may not have appeared in the dream. I had been reading Jung
recently, and the "black" and "white," showing opposites and
wholeness, got me thinking then, while awake, of my poetry
experiments and of black horses and white horses. I then figured
that I might have prejudiced my dream experiment [by thinking
about this ahead of time]. Which apparently I did. Because the
black and white horses came from aforethought, they did not come
from the ongoing dream itself, as had happened in earlier dreams.
Two deer. Substitute for the horses? Then "Horsy, horsy." How
awful.
April 2. I had discovered the house hidden behind other houses,
and upstairs in a large room, a few of us gathered together. A
large black panther came bounding into the room near the men. The
woman with the baby stood off to the side. Oh, that again. I
realized that as wild animals had appeared in recent dreaming, so
again this was a dream. I thought I'd let it be for now, then if
the panther were to jump at anyone, I'd just stop it. Before I
could do anything, the panther attacked the woman with the baby,
and they disappeared behind the door. Oh well, I decided, it
doesn't matter.
I asked a man about the history of a certain house in view. Then I
remembered about the poetry experiment. I turned from him, and he
said, I think, something about watching my step. Thinking about
the panther and about the idea that the panther may represent my
passions, I composed:
"The panther's black and greyish skin
Wraps tight around me as I jump within."
The composition came rather quickly. I recognized that the panther
was myself. However, all the wording and the implications of the
lines was not thought through. I didn't like the word "greyish,"
especially the "ish" part, which was necessary for the rhythm.
The area I saw was rather dark. So I turned around hoping to find
more light, so that I may not lose the dream environment. I found
a small area of light, and as I further worked on my composition,
the light increased, and I was no longer concerned about losing
the dream. I remembered about the horse (actually, horses) and
that they should be black and white. I changed the poem to:
"The horse's black and whitish skin
Wraps tight around me as I jump within."
I thought that I should then wake up, to write down the words. So
I woke myself up, remembered the lines and wrote them down.
Later, when I was near the edge of a cliff, I realized again that
I was dreaming. I believed there was a city below the cliff. I
remembered that I had done the poetry experiment. I ran to the
cliff and flew over the edge. In a half attempt at poetry, I flew
singing over and over, "I went flying over the city," to the tune
of "The bear went over the mountain." I was actually flying over a
large railway yard, with a few trains and lots of tracks. I did
not wake up right away and soon forgot that I was dreaming.
April 3. [analysis continued] While I would not have left the
lines as they are, the horse poem shows characteristics of
poetryCrhymes, repetitions of sound, a workable rhythm, and a
thought that was quite poetic. The key thought of the horse's skin
enclosing me and of the horse's jumping being my jumping [inspired
by the panther] was not thought through. It was the unconscious
that expressed it. I consider that I have successfully composed
two lines of verse within the dream. The poem would need more
lines plus the usual polishing up, and I don't usually depend on
end rhymes [rhymes at the end of lines]. While I remembered to
write about horses, the lines I composed deal with the dream
itself, beginning with the panther and working from there.
I have produced and remembered seven fragments of poetry from
dreams--four of one line or more and three of only part of a line.
In all cases but one, I either did not have time to complete two
lines or completing them, I forgot parts. The three short
fragments (Delhi tree; black horse, white horse; horsy, horsy) are
difficult to judge because of their brevity, except that the last
is undoubtedly bad.
It is better to judge only the longer pieces for the success of
the experiment. Of these four, I remembered only one two-liner
completely. Each of the four showed the characteristics of poetry,
although each would need further work done on it. Each was about
the dream situation itself, in spite of my being able in one to
compose on a predetermined subject. Each showed possible influence
from my writing while awake. Composing poetry while dreaming was
easier than I expected it to be, except for the real difficulties
of time being limited, the experiment ending abruptly, my
inability to write the words down, the tendency to forget what I
composed, and not being able to make a final judgment of the lines
while dreaming.
April 16. The fact that my poetry in dreams concerned itself with
the dream itself is probably explained by the fact that the dream
is already expressing my unconscious thoughts. The unconscious
does not appear to have two separate layers of thought ready to
express themselves at the same time, one in poetry and one in
dream.
-----------
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Dream Section is edited by Kat Peters-Midland
_
A golden porpoise in the sky, the moon falling, blood falling from
the ceiling into the toilet, a huge python snake shedding skin in
the middle of the road, ghosts floating above,...it sounds like a
science fiction story, doesn't it? Actually they're all in dreams
in the Dream section!
If you want to send in dreams, enter them at
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
Dream title: Changing
Dream date: months ago
Dreamer name: J7
Dream text: I had a dream that I swallowed my glasses.
Dream comments: Sometimes I forget to eat, because I get busy or
caught up in what I'm doing. This was one of those nights. I was
at a friend's house, so I couldn't go rumbling around for food
late at night. So I went to sleep considerably hungry. I forced
myself to fall asleep. Obviously I was hungry, but why glasses,
why not a hamburger?
Dream title: having a baby
Dream date: 08/30/04
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I dreamed that I was in the hospital give birth to my
first child. The baby was a girl. I was hitting my boyfriend
while I was pushing the baby out.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: 2 dreams from 2 different people same scenario
Dream date: 9/1/04
Dreamer name: JRO
Dream text: A few weeks ago my husband had a dream that a friends
of ours were in some kind of accident and their daughter who is
very young needed CPR. My husband said that he worked on her
forever it seemed but she did not make it. He said that all he
could remember saying is I am sorry, I am sorry.
Then my cousin to whom of which I am close to said that she was
having a dream about a close friend of hers who guess killed in
some kind of accident and she is to take care of her baby girl.
This woman who was in the accident does not have kids.
Dream comments: Why would 2 people that are close to me have the
same type of dream?
Dream title: THE BLOODY BATHROOM....?
Dream date: 2 months ago
Dreamer name: j*7
Dream text: I had a dream that my x-boyfriend had come over my
house. We were touchy and loving (no sex). Suddenly I felt like I
had to get up and go check the bathroom (but I didn't have to
"go"). When I got there, there was blood falling from the ceiling
into the toilet. I didn't call for help. I spent most of the dream
trying to clean up the mess.
Dream comments: I'm not sure what to make of it...
Dream title: none
Dream date: 31 Aug 2004
Dreamer name: S
Dream text: I was a guest host on a television show, it was a
contest I won and I got to ask 10 of the sexiest leading men two
questions. Who are they you ask? Sean Connery, John Travolta,
Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Antonio Banderas, Brad
Pitt, Kurt Russell, Julian Sands, and Jeff Bridges. Well, I only
asked of three then I got awakened. When I went back to sleep, I
dreamt that I asked Sean about his hometown and where he was born.
I asked John Travolta to use Vinnie Barbarino as an alter
personality and give me his take on his life today (career,
family, etc.). I was about to go to Johnny when my mother's
terrier pup licked me in the face and woke me.
Dream comments: This morning about 6 a.m. my dachshund woke me
wanting water. She does this by going into the bathroom and
thumping the water bowl down on the floor and against the bathtub
until I get up and fill it for her. I went back to bed and had
this dream.
Dream title: none
Dream date: Monday, August 30, 2004
Dreamer name: S
Dream text: I had friends in the mob, and they kept killing any
new friends I made. I didn't seem to mind other than it was a
little annoying. Then in segment two, I was driving and stopped at
a station to get gas. The pumps were suspended in mid air high off
the ground, well over the tops of cars. I went in to pay for the
gas but someone had killed the store clerk. I went back outside, a
man had just finished getting gas behind my car, and I started to
say something to him and the pumps blasted apart. I woke up when
we hit the ground.
Dream comments: Very weird.
Dream title: my wedding
Dream date: august 31, 2004
Dreamer name: O
Dream text: I saw my boyfriend and he's in jail. He got out and we
were just hugging and kissing. Then all of a sudden I was dressed
in my big wedding dress and that some dog came into the chapel and
tried to bite me. I could hold him back but I couldn't and he bit
my mom in the hand.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: A Funny Day
Dream date: 5-18-04
Dreamer name: Drf
Dream text: I walked into my teacher's, (Mr. S) room & he went to
the chalkboard and wrote "Students Are Nerds". Then he chucked an
easer at me. Then Mrs. K, the principal, walks in. She got 10
easers chucked at her. Then Miss L comes in, runs into the wall.
Then Mrs. K took a computer and threw it outside, and told Miss
Latt to go and fetch it. She got in and took a dump on Mr. S's
shoe and that was it.
Dream comments: This dream I had was funny that I was laughing in
my sleep.
Dream title: 3 eyes
Dream date: none listed
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I dreamed that a little boy had 3 eyes
Dream title: The Strange Affair
Dream date: August 30, 2004
Dreamer name: JR
Dream text: Last night I dreamt that my son's coach and I were at
a bar together (not a dive place a nice place top dollar). We
were sitting and talking at the bar. He asked me to join him
again in the same place and I did and we started seeing one
another and then my dreams got a little graphic so to speak.
Dream comments: I think I have had maybe about 3 conversations
with him. I still see him every time we have practice because he
is coaching another team but I have not even spoken to him this
season. When we drive by one another we wave but that is about it
as far as contact goes. Now it is like I feel that tension that
it was so real that it is playing on my mind. Why would I have a
dream about him and why does it feel so real that I would want to
know what it is like and could I be on his mind that the gods
above are telling me to pursue it or start it?
Dream title: Finding large amounts of money in all kinds of places
Dream date: August 28, 2004
Dreamer name: SA
Dream text: I was walking into a Verizon wireless store and I
looked down and noticed a large amount of money. After I picked
it up everything I ever wanted appeared. Then I found a bag of
money at school but the same thing happened again.
Dream comments: What can this mean?
Dream title: Cave from book when I was a kid
Dream date: once in a while
Dreamer name: ce
Dream text: These weird people and I are stuck in a cave and the
thing breaks and we are stuck.
Dream comments: Every once in a while I have this dream and it is
very scary.
Dream title: none
Dream date: none listed
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: My ex-boyfriend and I were making out under a tree, in
the rain, in Hyde Park (London). This is the place we shared our
first kiss! We were so happy because we were laughing and making
jokes!
Dream comments: My ex and I still like each other a lot but we
just can't be together because everything and everyone gets in our
way.
Dream title: Moon....falling??!!
Dream date: July-26-2004
Dreamer name: E
Dream text: I was in a room, kind of like a patio-porch-thing, and
I was with my mother. I looked up the moon was massive and red as
blood. As I continued to look the moon, it drifted closer, drew
bigger and bigger. And you know how a meteor has a tail from
debris, or how the plasma field generates around the shuttle as it
enters the atmosphere? You could see a red kind of 'field' around
it as it plummeted towards Earth. It hit, and hit hard hundreds
maybe thousands of miles away, but you could see the ground
rippling up like waves in water, and a big red light in the
horizon surrounded by dust flying up into the air. As the
shockwave hit I dove down in this porch and the building crumbling
around me. I somehow survived.
Dream comments: When I woke up, I took a lot of aspirin, and that
allergy medicine that makes you really tired, and realized...I was
late for work...
Dream title: Golden Porpoise in the Sky
Dream date: August 26, 2004
Dreamer name: PT
Dream text: I'm lying in a bed in a storefront looking out onto a
street (Melrose or Beverly) with a lot of neat little shops and
restaurants. I'm looking up at the sky. Suddenly a close friend
with whom I work (SH) walks outside the window with a tray from a
bakery. When she sees me she says "Look PT, these are the
tortillas made from French bread that I was telling you about".
And then she tips the tray slightly in my direction and I see
these large puffy tortillas on a black plastic tray with a
transparent lid (the kind that is pretty common in grocery
stores). After she walks away I look up at the sky again and I
see a beautiful shining golden porpoise flying around. It seems
to be chasing little things that I cannot see and just having a
good time. After a while it is joined by a golden baby porpoise.
I think to myself that they are mother and son. Soon I fall
asleep. When I wake up the sky above is black and I can see lots
of stars. Near the horizon the sky is still blue. Suddenly one
of the golden porpoises shoots out from the highest point in the
sky and plunges down towards the earth. I think to myself that
somebody is being reincarnated.
Dream comments: My younger brother died unexpectedly 2 years ago.
My mother never got over grieving for him before she died
unexpectedly earlier this year.
Dream title: What Did I Do???
Dream date: March 26, 2004
Dreamer name: OMG
Dream text: My dad had passed away sometime, and I went to the
cemetery to visit him. I was sitting at the foot of his grave
talking to him, and then all of a sudden I heard a pounding noise!
I sat to listen for a little bit, then all of a sudden I started
digging up his grave! The entire time I was digging, the pounding
kept getting louder and louder! When I finally got to his coffin,
I opened it up and saw my dad laying in a very awkward position.
The sides of the coffin were all torn up and the sides were
scratched and everything! That's when I realized I killed my dad
because I couldn't get to him in time to save him!
Dream comments: My dad was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor
about a year before my dream, and I think I'm just scared of him
dying! But I kind of want someone else's opinion on it!!
Dream title: Penguin-Oompa Loompa Dream
Dream date: 8-23-04
Dreamer name: Samantha
Dream text: I was sitting in the pool and all of a sudden a bunch
of penguins came up and tried to eat me and my friend...we started
running but we had no where to run to...the penguins were
attacking us and trying to kill us...then about 10 Oompa Loompas
came up and started eating the penguins and they became our
friends and we went to an island and lived forever with each other
and we eventually evolved into Oompa Loompas
Dream comments: I love penguins and Oompa Loompas. I went to
sleep at a friend's house that night and was screaming penguins
and Oompa Loompas in my sleep
Dream title: Creepy Ghost Dream
Dream date: 8-22-04
Dreamer name: S
Dream text: We were driving and our car broke down....we got out
and went into this house. It was an old house that was in perfect
order. We had to cross a wooden bridge in the house to get to the
next room and 3 people fell in. When they fell in, they were
drowning. When I went down to save them, the water was only up to
my ankles and they weren't drowning anymore. The people I was
with started to remodel the house and make it more modern because
it was from the 1900's. This girl and I decided to go to bed and
we went to sleep in the white room. It had a sign on the door
that said "white room". We walked in the room we were all dressed
in white and everything was in white. We went to sleep and as we
were sleeping I saw ghosts floating above us. The girl I was
sleeping with didn't see them but only I could see them. The
ghosts attacked us and grabbed us by our arms and tried to hurt
us. We woke up that morning and when we left all the things we
tried to remodel. It was back to the way it was before we started
remodeling. We walked over the bridge and got back in the car and
left.
Dream comments: when I woke up in the morning I had bruises on my
arm where the ghost grabbed me. They were up higher so it would
have been impossible for me to have hit myself while I was
sleeping and they were in the form of hands
Dream title: Nobody Will Kiss Me
Dream date: 8/24/04
Dreamer name: NG
Dream text: I was in my aunt's house and I was making a salad when
suddenly I wanted to kiss somebody badly. I ran over to this man
I saw and I went over to kiss him and he ran from me. Then I saw
this other man and I chased him around trying to kiss him. I
chased him through a maze but I still couldn't catch him. Suddenly
I knew I was dreaming and I screamed "this is MY dream! Why can't
I do what I want to? Why can't I kiss anybody?" I ran around
trying to kiss all of the men in my dreams but I never got kissed.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: the kiss
Dream date: 02/18/2000
Dreamer name: beautiful dreamer
Dream text: I was in Tesco's on one of the conveyer belts and I
was Fench kissing Olivia for about two hours. The staff were
asking us to stop. Lots of people were watching from school
Dream comments: tell me what it means
Dream title: Boyfriend having a child with someone else
Dream date: 04/20/2004
Dreamer name: m74
Dream text: I had a dream that my boyfriend is away to college and
he tells me he got a girl pregnant. I didn't know how to react.
Some months later I had a dream he came home with a little boy in
his arms and the little boy had to be 6-8 months old. In these
dreams I was just shocked because he apologized and said he was
sorry for what happened. We still stayed together.
Dream comments: My boyfriend is currently going to college and he
lives there. He comes home every other weekend or I go up there.
We are in summer break now and he is home with me. We have been
together for 4yrs
Dream title: Running Shoes Parked
Dream date: none listed
Dreamer name: T
Dream text: I was on my way to catch a bus; I parked my white
running shoes at a gas station in the very last spot. Later on
when I returned to the gas station, I realized my shoes have been
towed away!
Dream comments: none
Dream title: 2 dreams of my ex
Dream date: August 2004
Dreamer name: sunshine
Dream text: First dream: My ex-boyfriend didn't say anything. I
was the one who kept on talking & asking some questions but he
just stares at me.
Second dream: he drops me off my office and then we just stared at
each other while he was in a moving vehicle.
Dream comments: It's been three years now since my boyfriend and I
broke up & yet I can still feel the ties. A day after the second
dream, I got news that he's getting married. I don't know, but my
consistent dreaming of him this month makes me think that again
that he might be sending message to me. We don't have any
communication now.
Dream title: lost love
Dream date: 9/20/04
Dreamer name: tl
Dream text: I had a dream I saw my ex-boyfriend with a new
girlfriend, which happened to be an acquaintance/friend of mine,
at the funeral of one of his family members. She looked very
pretty wearing a red dress and white shoes and he wore a suit and
acted very indifferent toward me. I felt jealous, betrayed, hurt,
and helpless in the dream. I remember throwing something at him as
I walked away from them.
Dream comments: I just ended a long term relationship and it has
been very difficult to let go.
Dream title: Can't get them out of my head
Dream date: 6/04-8/04 1x a week
Dreamer name: D
Dream text: I am back with my ex and everything is wonderful. He
says he wants to marry me and I accept. He has a new girlfriend,
but gets rid of her at that moment.
Dream comments: We have been broken up for approx. a year, and
only dated for 9 months. I have had a boyfriend after that, but
recently broke up with him. I was having these dreams before,
during, and after I was with the most recent ex.
Dream title: none
Dream date: august, 22, 2004
Dreamer name: swimming
Dream text: I was on a school team and was a good diver. I know
my friend was out of town but she showed up. I also liked her
brother. But the weird thing is that she was swimming with me but
she's not on the team, and all of a sudden all the kids that were
watching the team swim stared swimming, excluding her brother but
when I saw her brother I woke up.
Dream comments: what does this dream mean? Oh, all the dreams I
dream and remember came true in a way!
Dream title: White dust
Dream date: 08/20/04
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I was in my in-laws house with my daughter and all of
a sudden a bomb exploded with white dust and it was killing us
all, the whole family.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: broken teeth
Dream date: 09/02/2004
Dreamer name: PJ
Dream text: I was trying to clean my teeth with something sharp,
kind of like scrapping it off. I hurt myself and my front teeth
are chipped. I didn't feel pain or scared.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Of Death and Bread
Dream date: 3 Sep 2004
Dreamer name: S
Dream text: I was in a house embedded deep into the woods. The
time of year was winter as the trees were bare and the brown
leaves covered the ground. But it appeared to be a job as well as
a home. At one point there were many people, and we were in a
sparsely furnished room. There were baskets of all kinds of
breads, some very thin, delicate, and decorative, like from a
cookie cutter. Others in loaf or baguette form. I heaped up a
plate of different ones and people were acting as if I'd taken too
much. I sat by myself, eating a delicious honeywheat kind of
bread and watching a screen depicting a lake scene. The water
would occasionally ripple as a drop fell into it, like watching a
screen saver. Then I was back at the house in the woods and I was
outside with my mother. She was telling me one of the puppies had
gotten killed by being bitten by ants. I became furious. I
screamed at her and came into the house. There was a blonde woman
in there and I yanked her hair and jerked her toward me and
demanded to know how the puppy got out to be killed. She was very
sad about it and I let her go. I mourned the puppy and made sure
the others were ok.
Dream comments: Normally a scene like this (winter in the woods)
would be pleasant to me and I would be happy. In real life, one
of our dogs had 7 pups, one didn't make it so we have six
remaining and I'm afraid Mother is going to hurt them because they
are just now romping out of the room and she won't watch where she
is stepping and may step on one. I don't know where the rest of
it came from.
Dream title: possession
Dream date: 9/5/2004
Dreamer name: Y
Dream text: I ended up going to a forbidden zone where a serial
killer used to hide out. I stole an article of clothing that was
still there under some rubble. It is red and I hid it in my
parents' garage. When I went in there later, I was afraid to go
in alone. I brought some friends in with me because the garage
became possessed. Again, that feeling of helplessness, in that I
became possessed and was on the brink of becoming the
reincarnation of this serial killer. Not because I wanted to.
But I touched the clothing. All I could do now was try to undo
what I had done, as though that's possible.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Fish in a fish tank
Dream date: 09/05/04
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I was looking in a fish tank and there was an
artificial alligator. The alligator was big and it moved like it
was battery operated. I removed this artificial alligator from the
tank and went to place it in a larger tank. I turned my back for a
minute and the alligator was in the tank. There were two very
large fish in this tank and they were almost the size of a very
large Oscar, only white and orange. The tank has a very small
amount of water in it. I knew some thing was wrong or about to
happen.
Dream comments: I normally think of a friend or a person that I am
close to is either going get pregnant or is currently pregnant and
doesn't know it.
Dream title: Unhappy ending
Dream date: September 5, 2004
Dreamer name: LGB
Dream text: My friends, my family and I were camping at lake in
some place far away from civilization. We were having so much fun
jumping off the end of a dock that we had built and diving for
clams at the bottom to eat for dinner. Everything was pleasant
till a strange man pulled up to me as I was swimming; out of
nowhere he appeared. Startled, I dove under to swim away in the
murky water. Before I could swim out of sight, he raised his hand
and chanted. The water level never changed but the ground beneath
it rose up and lifted me up out of the water. I was so scared. I
jumped off into the water and swam as fast as I could. I ran into
the cabin we had built on the shore and I warned all my friends
and family that we had to leave. We left everything and piled into
my van. As I sped away, my dad kept asking me what this black
symbol on my back was from. I didn't recall ever getting a tattoo
or anything like that. As soon as I had told him I didn't know
that there ever was a black thing on my back the symbol began to
rotate and I could feel everything become cold. I asked my father
what was happening, and I turned to him and everyone was in a deep
sleep. I turned to the road and I screamed as I drove into this
portal looking thing. The next thing I knew was that I was in a
different place. I looked around and it was the same place only
about a hundred years before. I crawled from the van which was
smashed up against a large tree. I had a painful abrasion on my
right temple and had a deep gash in my right thigh. I peered over
at my father and saw that they were all gone. I limped back to
where the cabin was and saw that they were all there having a
great time in the water. I was about a hundred yards offshore and
I heard a voice from behind me and turned to see the guy who had
scared me on the boat.
I was so frightened to see him that I fell backwards and started
to crawl away from him. He stepped over me and placed a hand over
my wounds and mumbled under his breath and moved his hand. The
wounds were gone and left clean. I asked him why, in a calm yet
worried tone. He said that he admired me in everything I did and
that he knew that there was something about me that made me unique
to other humans and he wanted to find out what it was. I asked him
how he intended on doing this and he smiled and answered, "I am
going to take you away from all that you know and love and take
you with me back to where I come from". I jumped up and ran. I ran
to the lake and jumped in, swam over to my father, and tried to
explain what was going on. But he just acted as if I didn't
exist. The man came to me on his boat and told me that he erased
the memories of me from all of their minds. He also said that if I
didn't take his hand he would destroy them all without hesitation.
I hugged onto my dad from behind and he wouldn't move. I realized
that I was true and he didn't remember nor notice me. I loved them
all so much knowing that they didn't know me, so I reluctantly
took his hand and he pulled me into the boat. He sped off as fast
as he could in the opposite direction. He took the boat through
another portal and then we were on a carriage led by a team of
black draft horses. When they stopped we were at a huge castle
like house that loomed over everything. He took my hand and showed
me in, lead me to a room somewhere on the top floor, he pushed me
on the bed, and tied my hands and feet together. "This is for your
own good. I know you don't want to be here but you soon will get
use to the idea of serving me as my apprentice." He shut the door
and left me in the dark. I wept long and hard for my loss and
finally gave in. He returned and asked me to remain still while he
untied me. Once done he grinned at me and chuckled as he spoke
these words that still haunt me; "AT LAST I HAVE YOU" ...then I
wake up in tears.
Dream comments: in all my dreams this is the only one I actually
gave into
Dream title: The death of an innocent while I am guilty.
Dream date: September 11, 2004
Dreamer name: M
Dream text: I was walking through the street, crying of guilt. I
knew I had done something wrong but why blame an innocent? I was
thinking of this when suddenly a black car came in front of me. An
unknown face looked up at me and said," Madame Clistric, you are
in danger. Please sit in your car." "Why?" That person said, "You
killed a man, Madame. Maybe that stupid girl will blame on you."
I looked more closely and saw the man who was talking to me. I sat
in the car. We sped towards my hideout. Suddenly I saw the
innocent person. I screamed, "STOP THE DAMN CAR TOLTA." That man
jammed on the brakes. I ran towards that girl and said, "I am the
one. Come with me. I am guilty. Come to the police station." The
girl started to shake her head and said, in a timid voice," Madame
Clistric you will then kill me." I tried to convince her, and then
police came and shot at that girl. I looked at her dead, lifeless
body and looked at the police officer who shot at her. I screamed
as I saw it was my younger brother Ted. Then I woke up.
Dream comments: none
: Sea waves
Dream date: 6th September 2004
Dreamer name: anonymous
dream text: I DREAMT THAT I WAS SITTING NEAR THE SEASHORE AND
SUDDENLY VERY HIGH WAVES CAME IN FRONT OF US I FLED AWAY TO HIDE
SOMEWHERE AND THE WAVES PASSED.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Red Angel dream
Dream date: September 7, 2004
Dreamer name: ys
Dream text: I am at work, but work is in a completely different
building. I don't recognize it. Glass windows are everywhere.
Looks like this floor used to be a Mexican restaurant of some kind
because I can see the unlit neon light still hanging in the
window.
I go upstairs to work. A couple of times I go up the stairs and I
go one floor too far. I have to come down to get back to the floor
work is on.
I get to my desk. My station is all set up. (Funny, this station
looks nothing like my work station currently.) I notice a big box
of things underneath my desk. I also notice a new board to use as
a table with a bottom clip to hold my papers. I am mad/frustrated
because I'm wondering why I have to change all this when I have a
perfectly good station there already.
Earlier in the dream sometime I must have flashed forward and saw
what happened next because when I see two people standing at my
desk I realize I had seen them do that already. I tell them that I
dreamed they would be there. They leave and I set to fixing my
station with the new items in the box.
Nothing seems to fit right. The clip for the board won't attach
correctly, it's as if all this stuff isn't meant for me. When a
co- worker finally arrives, I show it to him and he's confused by
the changes as well. I go to the boss lady or maybe she's just the
person who put the box under my desk because she doesn't look like
my real boss. She gives me a note that has tape on it. It says
that the box is for someone else's desk. And I wonder why she
didn't put this note on the box in the first place. I wasted so
much time trying to make it all fit my station. Now I must change
it back to normal and then fix up the new station for the new
person.
Suddenly the scene changes: I'm driving in the country. The car
doesn't seem familiar. It's a boxy brown sedan, nothing like my
car. I'm looking for a cabin I must have visited in my dream at an
earlier time. I notice someone is driving behind me. At some point
I get out of the car while it's still moving, I'm not sure why. I
look at the trunk then glance back to the car behind me. I don't
want to scare them by my being outside of the car like this. I
walk around to the driver door, and even though the car is moving
I was walking along the ground as if the car was parked.
We go down a very big hill, and then up the next hill. I keep
going up, up, up. Suddenly, the road ends, but I can't tell. The
nose of my car is pointed upward. Both my car and the car behind
me drive off the edge. The other car seems to fall faster even
though it drove off the cliff after I did.
I big red figure of a man or a woman, I can't tell which, appears
out of no where and catches me. The figure is huge. I latch onto
it and feel this warm sense of peace emanating from it. When it
first arrives I think the words 'red phoenix' then I wonder if
it's an angel. Wings extend from the body and we start to go up,
but the angel keeps hitting his/her head on the train trestle
above it. We're over water and the angel keeps bouncing along,
hitting his/her head until we are out in the open.
Dream comments: So, what do you think that one means?
Dream title: same sex dream
Dream date: September 7 and 8, 2004
Dreamer name: jb
Dream text: The first night I dreamt that my truest friend being a
female was kissing me very intimately while my husband was in the
background and then caressing my breast but I was not naked.
The second night I dreamt that someone who I do not get on with at
all also came to me but I was naked and she was arousing me very
intimately while my husband was in the background again.
Dream comments: Does my husband has any significance to my dream
or was he there to make me remember the dream and what on earth
does it mean?
Dream title: A glimpse into my past
Dream date: none listed
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: In one particular dream we are in my house from my
child hood. We have our own room and we share it. We are sitting
in it talking when I blurt out that I love him and he looks at me
and runs out of the room. His mom comes in and she sits me down
and tells me to stay away from her son. I run away crying and I
run out into the middle of the road in front of my house. I am
almost hit by a car, then my mom saves me (my mother died when
before I was 10). I scramble to my feet and I hug her but she
starts to walk away without saying anything to me. But somehow
just seeing her makes me feel better.
Dream comments: Boy girl friendships re hard to keep as
friendships. I have in real life had a crush on my best friend. I
tell him everything and he tells me everything and we aren't
afraid to tell each other what's on our mind. Recently he slept
over and when we woke up we found ourselves snuggling together and
he was holding me. All of the sudden I have been having bizarre
dreams about him. And they have been scaring me!
Dream title: shopping
Dream date: 9-12-2004
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I was shopping with my mom. Then a big shopping cart
flew in front of us and we were locked in by it and couldn't get
out.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Snow and Airplane
Dream date: 09-10-2004
Dreamer name: K
Dream text: I saw my daughter and myself in the plane. I saw
myself playing a snow.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Creepy
Dream date:
Dreamer name: j
Dream text: In front of my place where I live (in a building)
there was no playground. There was a big graveyard and every
single grave was empty. Only in my grandfather's was a coffin.
Then I saw a Christ with my name, and I saw myself down there in
the grave. Also while I was walking throw the graveyard I was
dressed in whit dress, the moon was full and it smelled
disgusting.
Dream comments: When I woke up I was wet because I cried in my
dream
Dream title: flying and saving people
Dream date: 9/15/04
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I was flying and saving people
Dream comments: what does it mean?
Dream title: The cat and ex boy friend
Dream date: 9/16/04
Dreamer name: what the heck
Dream text: First my ex-boyfriend was helping me get away from the
bad guys. I got away with him and he was staring at me for what
felt like hours and I did the same back at him. Soon he was gone
and I noticed one of my friends (who has two cats), walk through
the door. Her cats were not in the house and so she opened the
door to the outside and walked down the front walk and noticed
one, then both cats. They
came in side and that was it I woke up.
Dream comments: really that wasn't all but the jist.
-------------------- END ISSUE -----------------
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All dream and article text and art are considered (C)opyright by
the writers, artists and dreamers themselves. Anyone other than
the authors may use or reprint the text for non-commercial use,
but all other use by anyone other than the author must be with the
permission of either the author or the current Electric Dreams
publisher.
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DISCLAIMER: Electric Dreams is an independent electronic
publication not affiliated with any other organization. The views
of our commentators are personal views and not intended as
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