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Electric Dreams Volume 13 Issue 03
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 #13 Issue #3
March 2006
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
Richard Wilkerson
++ Global Dreaming News
Harry Bosma
++ Cover "Sea of Dreams"
Richard Wilkerson
http://tinyurl.com/ecfh6
++ Column: An Excerpt from the Lucid Dream Exchange
Lucy Gillis - Editor
Robert Waggoner interviewed Fariba Bogzaran
++ Dream: "Semantic Protection"
Stan Kulikowski II
++ Article: The Calling to Be a Super Hero
Linda Lane Magallón
++ Article: I dont measure up! Overcoming Your Worst Critic
DreamRePlay with David Jenkins, PhD
++ DREAM SECTION:
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D E A D L I N E :
March 15th deadline for April 2006
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Post Dreams and Comments on Dreams to:
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
Send news, events, workshops, conferences& reviews to
Harry Bosma <ed-news@alquinte.com>
Send Articles, news and other items to:
Richard Wilkerson: <rcwilk@dreamgate.com>
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Editor's Notes
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Welcome to the March 2006 issue of Electric Dreams, your portal to dreams and dreamwork online.
If you are new to dreams and dreamwork, there are a few e-lists where Electric Dreams people seems to congregate that might interest you. One is
dreamchatters@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe by going here and registering
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dreamchatters/
.. and another is the IASD bulletin board. Please, no dreams interpreted here, just discussion of dreaming and dreamwork topics.
http://www.asdreams.org/subidxdiscussionsbboard.htm
This month in Electric Dreams:
Lucy Gillis continues to explore the edges of dreaming and finds the most interesting topics for her Lucid Dream Exchange(LDE). This month, LDE co-editor Robert Waggoner interviews Fariba Bogzaran Ph.D., a long time lucid dreamer, explorer, and visionary. Fariba started the John F Kennedy University Dream Certificate Program, and is currently the Executive Director of the Lucid Art Foundation.
Linda Magallón, dream pioneer and author of Mutual Dreaming, is a regular contributor to Electric Dreams and returns this month with "The Calling to Be a Super Hero." Here she talks about her exploration of dream identities, desires and nightmares. Are you ready to join the League of Amazing Dreamer?
Stan Kulikowski II offers as selection from his unique dream journal "Semantic Protection" If you have dreams you would like published, please enter them in the form at http://dreamgate.com/forms/dream_flow.htm
David Jenkins, PhD. has started DreamRePlay, and you can sign up for weekly dream pulses. Here in the March issue of EDreams he is offering a sample from January 20, 2006, called:
I dont measure up! Overcoming Your Worst Critic, where you will learn about the backstory being created and how to relate more productively to your dream characters.
David runs groups in Berkeley, CA if you are in the area.
Dream section editor Kat Peters-Midland returns from vacation with a varied collection of dreams with a woman turning into puppy then turning into little boy, lots of tornadoes in the sky, small shadowy creatures lurking in the dark, celestial beings chanting Om Namah Shivaya, and much more!
Janet Garrett archives past issues so you can search out specific articles and authors in an easy-to-access format. These articles contain a wide range of information for dreamers and dreamworkers. You can see her work progress and view hundreds of article on dreams at: http://www.improverse.com/ed-articles/index.htm
Harry Bosma searches around the world for news on dreams and dreaming, which you can read about in the Global Dreaming News. If you have any dream news, conferences, books, workshops, and especially any online meetings or events, be sure to send that information to Harry by the 15th of each month at ed-news@alquinte.com
Cover by Richard Wilkerson,"Sea of Dreams"
http://tinyurl.com/ecfh6
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For those of you who are new to dreamwork,
be sure to stop by one of the many resources:
http://dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
http://dreamgate.com/dream/library
http://dreamunit.net/news-en/
http://www.dreamtree.com
Electric Dreams in PDF: (thanks to Nick Cumbo)
http://electric.dreamofpeace.net/
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From the Dream Dimension,
-Richard Wilkerson
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G L O B A L D R E A M I N G N E W S
March 2006
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Got news? Email Harry Bosma at his special ed-news@alquinte.com address.
Online:
- John Herbert: dreamwork services
- Robert Van de Castle: dream consultation
- Invitation to the Precognition Games
- IASD 2005 Art Shows online
- Test Sawlogs.net, a Community Dream Blog
Physical world:
- Dreaming in Bridgewater / Invited speakers
Books, movies, research:
- Dreams in Reader's Digest!
- Looking for Women's Dreams
Reminders:
- Ritual DaFuMu for Peace
- Copenhagen: Nordic Dream Conference
- Berkeley: the Dream Institute
* * * ONLINE * * *
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- John Herbert: dreamwork services
---
2006 is the year I'm opening my virtual office to offer my dreamworking skills online by e-mail, by visual or audio teleconferencing, by phone, or in person if we are in the same geographical area.
It helps for me to have the dream in writing, whether we work by e-mail or in person. In working with a dream by e-mail, we exchange correspondence until you understand your dream's message. Even with phone conferencing, it is best for me to have a faxed or e-mailed copy of the dream before we work with it.
For those who are familiar with face-to-face dream groups, I'd like to mention that my research has shown that using e-mail results in generating substantially more meaningful associations to the dream's imagery. I think you will be pleased with the results of participating in the group e-mail process.
I am available to work in the mode you prefer. My website, www.dreamvoice.us contains basic information about the services I am able to offer,
Face-to-face dream groups usually require a commitment to meet at specific times in specific locations. Teleconferencing removes the geographical requirement but substitutes technical computer requirements. I am equipped with a webcam, and if you have one, we can teleconference. I have not yet tried multi-image groups, although with the proper technical parameters, a four person conference should be possible.
For more information and links about my work, I suggest you Google "John Herbert" and "Dream."
I believe that all dreams come in the service of health and well-being.
Best wishes,
John
www.dreamvoice.us
http://dreamgate.com/dream/cyberphile/cyberphile_19_4.htm
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- Robert Van de Castle: dream consultation
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Robert Van de Castle, author of the book Our Dreaming Mind, has opened his website with the same name. The website explains how copies of the book can be ordered. The website also offers a dream consultation service.
The charge for the approximately one-hour taped individual dream consultation that you will receive is $150.00[USD]. It takes Dr. Van de Castle several hours to carefully and systematically review your dream reports and attempt to integrate your biographical data with your answers to the various projective questions into his comprehensive commentary. This effort to integrate the various items from the Personality Inventory and weave them together with the various elements from the dreams is graphically represented in the mandala shown below, where the pattern of overlapping strands of information is portrayed. Dr. Van de Castle will attempt to explain on your tape what items of information are being connected together to make the various inferences he is making.
More information is availabel at the website:
http://ourdreamingmind.com/
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- Invitation to the Precognition Games
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You are invited to participate in the Precognition Games. These will start in March 2006. It costs nothing, and you can invite other dreaming friends.
SCHEDULE FOR THE PRECOGNITION GAMES
The games should learn us more about the possibilities of incubation of precognitive dreams. The program has been designed to make participation fun and exciting.
Announcements and discussions of the experiments take place at the Bulletin Board of the IASD. You will be asked to post your dreams to the Dream Registry, for time stamping of your dream. Typically there are two weeks between experiments, unless otherwise noted.
March 18/19 - Nice to meet you
First experiment. Meet somebody in your dreams who you will meet the next week. Ideally you would have a small interaction with that person. The actual event or interaction can be trivial, as long as it stands out as a remarkable coincidence with the dream.
April 1/2 - Predicting the news
Dream about future news. Aim at something that will become known within the next week. Something small will do, allow your dreaming all the room it needs to find something that appeals to your interests. It can be newspaper news, or trade specific news, or anything else as long as it can be objectively verified.
April 15/16 - Getting involved
Have a dream to prepare for a future situation in your immediate environment. Suggestions for such a future situation include events in your own future, events in the life of people you know, or events in your neighborhood.
Prepare means that you actually get to enter a not quite optimal situation with the benefit of hindsight view. After submitting your dream, there will be opportunity to get together for mutual support and action plans. The next experiment will start after three instead of two weeks.
May 6/7 - The Big News
Feedback may take a while, but in this world hardly a year goes by without some big news event captivating the world for weeks or months in a row. Can we predict the next one?
May 20/21 - Psi and the world
Psi phenomena have been ridiculed by intellectuals for generations, but the tide is turning. Another ten years from now, the situation could have improved beyond imagination. Dream about it. Evaluation next weekend.
May 26/27 - Looking back
As usual an evaluation of the previous experiment, this time combined with looking back at the whole set of experiments.
If you want to join in with the fun, please let me know and I will email you reminders and details for each separate experiment. Use the following contact form:
http://dreamunit.net/text-en/contact_form.shtml
Announcements will also be made to the IASD Bulletin Board, which you can find here:
http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/bb2005/
Best wishes,
Harry Bosma
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- IASD 2005 Art Shows online
---
The IASD conference of 2005 featured both an art exhibition in Berkeley, California, as well as an art show on the web. You can see view the art of both shows at the extension website of the IASD.
http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/gallery2005/index.htm
You will see art by the following artists: Bonnie Bisbee, Fariba Bogzaran, Betsy Davids, Evelyn Doll, John Dorinsky, Thomas Dragavon, Donna Fenstermaker, Brenda Ferrimani, Sylvia Gehres, Jane Gifford, Virginia Goodwind, Paul Hartsuyker, Clare Johnson, Judith Krischik, Elaine Langerman, Dorothy Nissen, Nance O'Banion, Kat Peters-Midland, Tino Plank, Diane Rusnak, Richard Russo, Angela Saylor, Maria Taveras, Barbara Turner, and D. Mae Wright.
To contact, some of these artist have an IASD member page with more information:
http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/member/list/
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- Test Sawlogs.net, a Community Dream Blog
---
Sawlogs is a way to store, search, sort and share your dreams. Sawlogs.net launches soon and I'd like you to help out and take a test run through the web site before I let the dreaming community in.
With Sawlogs you can:
- Keep your dream blog online
Sawlogs lets you record and store your dream blog online in a secure, password-protected area - and at the same time lets you share the dreams you'd like to make public with the others using Sawlogs.
- Discover who dreams like you
Sawlogs stores, sorts and retrieves dreams from the database of dream blogs to find dreams just like yours - letting you hook up with other dreamers who have had similar dreams.
- Discuss yours and other dreams
Once you've connected up with other dreamers, you can use Sawlogs as a community blog - discussing dreams, their content, interpretations and more.
I'd like you to use Sawlogs as your dream blog for the next ten days - it'd be a big help to ensure everything on the web site is working! Here's what you need to do:
1. Go to www.sawlogs.net
2. Cruise around the 'Explore' section before signing up.
3. Sign up by clicking the 'Sign Up' button at the top of the page.
4. Sign in after clicking the link in the email you'll be sent after signing up.
5. Describe any dreams you can recall during the week or can remember from an earlier time (by clicking the 'Describe a Dream' link at the top of the page)... (5 dreams in all).
6. Tell me if you experience any problems, or if you'd like to see any changes or enhancements made. If, for instance, you can't sign up or sign on, send me an email, or click the 'Contact Us' link that can be found at the top right of every Sawlogs page.
Direct all emails to rick_smith@sulfurstar.com . I look forward to hearing from you on (or before, if there are errors that you find that need to be fixed) February 28th!
Thanks for your help and support with this project!
Rick Smith
* * * PHYSICAL WORLD * * *
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- Dreaming in Bridgewater / Invited speakers
---
23rd Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams
June 20 - 24th, 2006
Bridgewater State College,
Bridgewater Massachusetts
Invited speakers include noted Jungian psychologist, Michael Conforti, Ph.D, dreamwork pioneer, Montague Ullman, M.D., and Sci-Fi and fantasy author, Orson Scott Card.
Join dreamers, clinicians, researchers, educators and artists from all over the world for four days of workshops, lectures, exhibits, and events examining dreaming and dreamwork as presented through traditional and innovative theories and therapies, personal study, scientific research, cultural tradition and the arts. Over 100 workshops and events on all aspects of dreaming are planned, with topics and events of interest to the general public as well as professionals. Special events include an Opening Reception, a Dream Arts Exhibition and reception, a solstice visit to a Native American archaeoastronomical site, a Dream Telepathy Contest, various other social events and the ever popular closing costume "Dream Ball".
More information at the website of the IASD:
http://asdreams.org
* * * BOOKS, MOVIES, RESEARCH * * *
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- Dreams in Reader's Digest!
---
The February issue of Reader Digest has a special on dreams. You can read the main article "What Your Dreams REALLY Mean" by Michael J. Weiss online.
http://tinyurl.com/hzbms
---
- Looking for Women's Dreams
---
If you are 18 years or older, female, can remember ONE DREAM and would like to participate in a brief, confidential, ONLINE doctoral research study of the DREAMS OF WOMEN, you are invited to click on the link below:
https://www.psychdata.com/surveys.asp?SID=10105
Although I am working through the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and am a practicing psychoanalyst, I will not be doing psychoanalytic dream interpretation of the data. I will be using a content analysis scale. I don't want to give participants much more info than that in an effort to keep them unbiased. I can and will send results of the study, to come in about a year's time, to all interested parties. I have a folder of participants who want results. Anyone can contact me at:
Barbdamato@aol.com
Thanks so much for your help,
Barbara
* * * REMINDERS * * *
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- Ritual DaFuMu for Peace
---
The World Dreams Peace Bridge, on the 15th of each month, is holding a monthly DaFuMu - a collective dream of good fortune - to support peace.
For more information go to:
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/dafumumonthly.htm
To join the World Dreams Peace Bridge discussion group, just send an e-mail to worlddreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .
---
- Copenhagen: Nordic Dream Conference
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Dreams and creativity
24-26 March, 2006
A spectacular program with among other Pia Skogeman, jungian analyst and writer (Denmark); Montague Ullman, MD and world reknown dream researcher (USA, via web-transmission); BrittMari Felke, teacher (Sweden); Eero-Tapio Vuori, artist, theatre director (Finland); Antti Revonsuo ph.d./Katja Valli (Finland); Michael Schredl, Ph.d. dream researcher (Germany) and many more. The program includes panels, workshops, presentations, performance and networking.
The fee of the conference is extra-ordinary low, so we hope this will make it possible for more people to attend. The fee is 750 Danish Kroner (approximately 100 EURO). Members of IASD receives a special discounted fee at 500 Danish Kroner (approximately 70 EURO). The conference will mainly take place in English language.
For more information, please see:
www.ffsd.dk/ndk_2006.php
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- Berkeley: the Dream Institute
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First Saturdays
Feb 4, Mar 4,
3-5 PM Social Hour Follows
$20 & $15 Students
With Richard Russo, MA and Meredith Sabini, PhD.
Culture Dreaming is an experimental ritual that gives a living sense of interconnection. First, dreams are told in Quaker fashion, with no comment. Then we explore together the composite dream just co-created. Dreams become a camera obscura or hologram showing surprising relevance to both individual and larger social concerns. Observers welcome. Come once, occasionally, or regularly.
-----
And if you are in the Berkeley area in March, our friends at the Dream Institute of Northern California are going to take the Cultural Dreaming one step further and present on the Spring Equinox , Sunday March 19th, 3-5 Dreaming With Eye Open: A Dream-play in the Fox Commons courtyard. Barbara Dittrich, Jana Hutcheson, Nancy Issac, Lana Nasser, Richard Russo and Meredith Sabini. This benefit for the Dream Institute will be $15-$100. 1673 University Av. Berkeley, CA 510-845-2767
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A couple of items I didn't get into the news but are on the near dream horizon:
The will be a CNN special on Sleep and Dreams, due to air Sunday, March 12, 2006, which will feature Patricia Garfield, PhD. Also see her comments and others in the
Reader's Digest, February, 2006, "Making Peace with Grief"
and if you missed the Gayle Delaney, PhD segments on Dreams on the
TODAY SHOW on March 1, that is available at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11606334/
========================================
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An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange
By Lucy Gillis
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LDE co-editor Robert Waggoner interviewed Fariba Bogzaran over two issues in his column "DreamSpeak". Fariba Bogzaran, Ph.D., has been a long time lucid dreamer, explorer, and visionary. As an artist, teacher, and writer, she brings unique insights into lucid dreaming and consciousness. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of the Lucid Art Foundation.
Here is the complete interview.
Responses (c) Fariba Bogzaran
Questions by Robert Waggoner
Robert: Fariba, you have been very active in lucid dreaming as a professor, artist, and lucid dreamer. When did you first learn about conscious dreaming or lucid dreaming?
The first time I had the experience, I believe, I was four years old. I also had numerous lucid dream experiences growing up. I became interested in studying dreams in my teens and became very focused on finding a discipline that led me to this field of study. However, the first time I heard the term "lucid dreaming" was in one of my undergraduate courses on the Psychology of Consciousness at the University of Wisconsin. I was fortunate to have a professor, Daniel Kortenkamp, who taught courses on consciousness studies, parapsychology, and transpersonal psychology at the undergraduate level! I took every class he taught and he became an important mentor to me. I let him know of my interest in dreams. He guided me to several books and would give me any material he would receive on dreams. We received the announcement for the first Dream Network Bulletin in 1981 and the formation of the Association for the Study of Dreams (ASD). So I was connected to the emerging field of dream studies from its inception. At the time, in 1980, there were not many publications on lucid dreaming, but I studied what I could find and I learned more about the topic at the first ASD conference. Naturally there was no discipline for dream studies and I always envisioned a program or a degree on dream studies, not knowing that fifteen years later I would develop a Dream Studies program at JFK University and create a curriculum to include lucid dreaming as a core course and become one of the teachers in the field.
Robert: Can you recall your first lucid dream experience? Please, tell us about that.
My first lucid dream was at the age of four and the dream was a combination of a lucid and precognitive dream. In the dream I am in a photography studio with my mother and there are several benches. I am sitting in the front row with my hands crossed looking straight into the camera. I knew this was a dream, but I kept still and focused on the lens. That is all I remember. The precognitive aspect of it was that my mother actually did take me to this photography studio a few days later. We took a taxi there and when we got out of the taxi in a very busy intersection, I recalled the dream. I told my mother and my mother said "If you know where we are going, why don't you take me there." I remember very vividly holding my mother's hand and leading her to the photography studio. She was pretty impressed when I found the place. When we entered, I realized that the room was identical to my dream. There was a row of benches and the photographer had set up the photo so that I would be sitting in the last row. But I kept running to the front row. He became pretty annoyed with me. He insisted I sit where he had set up the shot but I started to cry. I really wanted to sit where I had sat in the dream. Finally my mother told him, "If you want a pretty expression, you better let her sit where she wants." He had to relocate his equipment to accommodate me. I still have that photo! I never forgot that experience and for years my mother and I talked about it. Later on in life she told me from that moment on, she knew what I wanted and supported me in my path.
But my most significant lucid dreams happened at around age seven when I was very ill with a high fever for almost six weeks. The doctors did not really know what was wrong with me. During this illness, I had recurrent lucid hypnagogic experiences of falling into the abyss. First I was scared but soon I learned there was nothing to be scared about so I began experimenting. There was always a platform in the dream that I would jump off. I began diving into the darkness of the abyss, hanging in space, yet knowing I was dreaming. I could sustain being in these peaceful and comforting spaces for a long time and then I would end up adventuring into various dreams. I was pretty isolated from other children during that time since the cause of my illness was unclear and the doctors weren't sure if it was contagious. That was my first experience of being totally in touch with my inner world. I also learned the skill of lucid dreaming and how to sustain and surrender to it.
Robert: What was it about that lucid dreaming experience (or those early experiences) that you found interesting? Was your non-lucid dream life as compelling?
Yes, my non-lucid dream life was as interesting. In my early teens, I was dealing with several major dream themes among them were: spiritual experiences in dreams, dreams of death and precognitive dreams. All three themes became important portals to direct me to my life's path.
The theme of death in my dreams forced me to face many existential questions at an early age. During my entire childhood and adolescence, I had dreams of drowning. Using the skill of lucid dreaming, I learned to transform these experiences by waking myself up or even breathing underwater. Nevertheless it was disturbing to me to have so many reoccurring dreams of drowning. Most children don't think symbolically, so I was convinced that I was going to die by drowning. My way of dealing with that was that I made sure I became a good swimmer!! Later on, I asked my mother many times if I had had any childhood traumas. She never revealed anything about any trauma I had insisted. I was 27 years old when she finally told me that something had happened when I was just a baby. The story changed my life. Finally I understood why I was dedicating my life to the study and teaching of dreams. Since she died 7 years ago, I began sharing this experience with others to honor her and her lifesaving dream.
Here is the experience: I am nine months old sleeping in my crib. At the same time, my mother is sleeping in her bed having a dream that someone is trying to suffocate me. She wakes up with great anxiety, goes to my crib and sees the blanket over my head! She is terrified to find me dead underneath the blanket. She grabs the blanket off of me to find me purple and out of breath. She picks me up and keeps shaking me to revive me. Finally, to her great relief, I start crying.
Naturally, this was a traumatic experience for both of us! This experience made a significant impression on my mother and she took her and my dreams (when I learned to talk) very seriously (from then on). I had many insights later about why I had all the drowning dreams at an early age. But the greatest realization was that if it were not for my mother's dream, I would not be alive. I am totally in service to the incredible world of dreaming.
The spiritual experiences in lucid and non-lucid dreams that I had in my teens became an important and central focus in my research and teaching in my life.
Robert: At that time, what methods did you use to bring conscious awareness into the dream state? Has that changed over the years?
I began as a spontaneous lucid dreamer. But once I realized I could also intentionally have a lucid dream, then I started working with incubating dreams. I never was interested in just having a lucid dream for the sake of the experience because that happened naturally. However, if I incubated a lucid dream, I always had a particular intention.
In 1984, I began developing techniques for lucidity. Since there was not much literature on the topic in English (the Tibetans had been masters of lucid dreaming for centuries), I began developing my own methodology. I combined and I still use three major practices: meditation practices, sound, and Ta'i Chi. I have been deeply involved with these practices for over 20 years and have found the combination works very well for me.
Meditation practice teaches the skill of witnessing, sound or chanting teaches the skill of sustaining altered states, and Ta'i Chi helps the physical and energetic body to open to deep experiences of the mind. But above all, lucid waking practices are the most important - to attend to the present and become awake in the waking state.
Robert: As you had more and more lucid dreams, did any lucid dreams make a deep impression on you? Tell us about them.
My most impactful lucid dreams happened in mid- to late 1980s. They were multidimensional in nature. They revealed different aspects of the mind. In some dreams not only did I witness the dream, I witnessed the witnesser and it kept going on and on into dimensions beyond waking comprehension. I later called these dreams "Hyperspace Lucidity." They no longer felt like dreams, although they did happen when I was asleep. But their nature was an intersection between dreaming and "Mind Awakening." These lucid dreams changed me completely. I am no longer the same person that I was. It might be esoteric to say this, but I believe that those experiences changed me at the cellular level. These experiences happened before and during working on my thesis on Experiencing the Divine in Lucid Dream State. I was very lucky to have an opportunity to live a more monastic life in nature for three years while writing my thesis and move deeper and deeper into my practice. I was opening myself to the experience of lucid dreaming with all its complexities and depth.
Robert: In the late 1980s, I recall receiving a letter from you in which you explained your intent to write a graduate/doctoral thesis on lucid dreaming and experiences of the divine. You sought lucid dreamers to become lucid and seek the divine. What brought about your interest in this particular topic and lucid dreaming?
This topic was of a great interest to me and was part of my spiritual quest at an early age. I always thought the ultimate dream experience was to experience God. But the root of this inquiry goes to my spiritual upbringing. I was raised with the spiritual tradition of the Baha'i Faith. An important aspect of this religion is that when children reach age 15 their parents encourage them to read and experience other religions and then choose their own spiritual path. Because elimination of any sort of prejudices is a key idea in the Baha'i Faith, this is a way to have children study and experience other religions so they have an in-depth knowledge, understanding, and compassion for other views. This exploration is called the "Independent Investigation of Truth." Of course, deep down, parents wish that after the investigation their children will follow the Baha'i Faith, but they have to accept whatever their child chooses. To my parent's total shock, I chose Buddhism. I started meditating, following the Buddhist thoughts and became a vegetarian. This was 1973 in Iran were Buddhism was not even a major minority religion. The majority followed Islam and the major minority religions were Zoroastrian, Christianity, Judaism and Baha'i Faith.
I read as much as possible and learned meditation. It was around this time that my lucid dreaming began to increase in frequency. Naturally I wanted to go to India but my parents objected. They gave me the choice to go to England or the U.S.A., so my quest took a Western twist! I was 18 when I left for England to learn English.
In England, my inquiry into different religious practices began. When one studies and deeply experiences different spiritual traditions, one begins to see the commonalties among all religions. My question then was how do people of different religions experience God? And how does the image of God appear in their dreams? In the Baha'i Faith, there were no images of God. The Divine is like a close friend who resides inside. Also in the Persian language (Farsi) God doesn't have a gender. God is not personalized. The closest to an image of the Divine is in the geometry of sacred architecture. When I traveled to the West, I found that God was referred to as a "he" and was personalized. Also in my studies of comparative religion, I found icons were very important and they represented impressions of a personalized God.
So naturally I was interested to know how these beliefs are reflected in the dreaming experience. I was surprised when I started teaching lucid dreaming in 1984 that mainly people were interested in lucid dreaming for personal adventure and entertainment. So as part of the curriculum, I decided to include the spiritual aspect of lucid dreaming. Scott Sparrow's and Evan Wentz's books on the topic were my two references. Tibetan texts on Dream Yoga were not accessible unless you practiced Tibetan Buddhism, which was not available where I lived.
It was not a coincidence that I met Stephen LaBerge at the second ASD conference in 1985. I believe our meeting was what the surrealists called a "chance encounter." We were both wandering around the campus at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville looking for the reception party. I knew about Stephen's research and had studied everything I could on the topic. We spent an hour strolling around the campus and talking about lucid dreaming. His book Lucid Dreaming had just been published. After he heard of my interest and experience in lucid dreaming he encouraged me to join his research team at the Lucidity Project in California.
At that time, I was a graduate student at the University of Regina, Canada and was on a leave of absence doing research at the University of Wisconsin. I had already done sleep laboratory work in Wisconsin and had worked as a biofeedback technician. I was at a crossroads seeking a sympathetic university with which to do my research. LaBerge suggested the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), one of the institutes where he taught physiology. His encouragement was exactly what I needed.
Soon after I met him, I applied to CIIS and was accepted. Five months later I was in California! I contacted him immediately and started working with him at the Stanford Sleep Laboratory. At the sleep lab I monitored many lucid dreams. I was very lucky to be an early riser, so my observation of the EEG monitors started around 4:30 am to 8:30 am. I would take over the observation duties from Lynne Levitan, another researcher, around 4:30 am. We had one of the top lucid dreamers, Daryl Hewitt, as our subject and it seemed that every time he was in the lab he would have a lucid dream. Naturally, most lucid dreams happened early in the morning when I was observing. Stephen's Dream Light device was in the early stages of development and he was trying to perfect it.
I believe I witnessed one of the longest lucid dreams ever recorded in the lab. It was 40 to 45 minutes long! Daryl was also interested in the spiritual dimensions of lucid dreaming. So we discussed it and he agreed to incubate being in the presence of the Divine in his lucid dream and participated in my study.
At that time lucid dreaming was still a new topic. But I was fortunate to have the support of many wonderful colleagues. LaBerge's book Lucid Dreaming, although a classic now, was at the time faced with many critiques from researchers who were not totally convinced of the validity of this phenomena, and those who were convinced, did not like the idea. Thanks to Jayne Gackenbach who pioneered the Lucidity Association and the publication of Lucidity Letter, we had yearly conferences and exchanged research, ideas, and encouragement. The Lucidity Association became the educational foundation for understanding this phenomenon. I became part of the Board of this association in 1988 that included LaBerge, Gackenbach, Harry Hunt, and George Gillespie. Together we created groundbreaking conferences and dialogues on the topic.
Robert: Was it hard to approach this as a thesis topic and enlist lucid dreamers? Did your dreams provide any encouragement?
At the time, the research on the experience of the Divine in lucid dreaming was provocative. It was definitely a stretch to pick this topic as a thesis, since most people were just learning what lucid dreaming was and were even questioning its validity. But for me, the most important aspect of lucid dreaming was to explore the nature of the mind and advancing spiritual practices.
I was fortunate to have Ralph Metzner as one of my teachers, who was interested in this topic. He also was the Dean at CIIS. All theses had to be approved by him. Although he was supportive, he wanted me to conduct the research quantitatively! Naturally I wanted to do phenomenology and did not like his suggestion. How could I quantify spiritual experience in lucid dreaming? But later I understood the wisdom behind his suggestion. To approach esoteric topics in academia sometimes one has to communicate in the language that is familiar to scholars. Qualitative research at that time was still an unfamiliar and questionable methodology. So the combination of an esoteric topic with a questionable methodology would have meant that no one would have taken the study seriously. Whereas doing the research quantitatively made the research worthy of consideration since no one had done that type of research before.
LaBerge, who supported the study, supervised my research. I met with him almost weekly to design the study. The Lucidity Project had already received thousands of letters from lucid dreamers from all over. I read about 2000 letters to choose 250 lucid dreamers who I thought they really knew what lucid dreaming was and had an in-depth experience. Your lucid dream must have been among those thousands which I chose! Isn't this wonderful. Here we are!
Although I was all ready to do the research, I felt internally conflicted at the beginning. I knew I was contacting a very sensitive and sacred topic. I experienced a strong need to do a vision quest to receive guidance for my work. I also needed to do dream incubation to go deeper into the wisdom of lucid dreaming.
I left San Francisco in the spring of 1987 and moved into a beautiful house in a remote area of West Marin. I began living more of a monastic life: letting go of most of my possessions and devoting my time to deepening my lucid dream practice. My daily practices included meditation at 4:00 am followed by two hours of Ta'i Chi and Chi Qung practice. My graduate study was in East-West Psychology and my focus was on Taoism. Also I was a serious student of Ta'i Chi Ch'uan and was training to become a teacher. Also I was doing shamanic practices. I took daily walks in the forest and took two naps during the day. In the evenings I used my shamanic drum just before falling asleep. It was a process of emptying the mind, flexing the body, opening the energetic centers, and focusing the intention.
After several life changing lucid dreams in which I had incubated experiences of the Divine, I felt I was ready to begin the research. In one particularly complex and lengthy lucid dream called "Unfolding Universe" (1987) I was reassured and encouraged to explore this topic. I have reported this lucid dream in several publications, but I will share a part of it that might interest you.
After I became lucid and asked if I should be pursing my thesis on the Divine, the following experience occurred:
Suddenly I see a dot of purple-green color expanding in the sky. It keeps getting bigger, filling the landscape and changing into different rings of colors. It appears to be rings but they are not solid. They are like the circle around the moon. The space is so vast, beyond my visual capacity. As the rings come closer they change into particles of light dots moving extremely fast creating light lines that cover everything. Strong energy starts to move inside me. What seems to be my dreambody transforms into particles of light. Consciousness is very clear, yet no personal consciousness, desire, or will is present.
This state is one of absolute serenity. Somehow part of me knows that my consciousness is in everything that I see but yet there is no "I" to see! There is an awareness of vast spaces and purpose. Eventually everything seems to slow down with an inner hum as if time and space are swollen into infinity. Here there is no movement, time, or space but an incredible stillness. I stay in this state for what feels like eternity.... moving back to the Known eventually I become aware of the particles slowly changing into a night sky.... entering into the second hyperspace lucidity the planets change into transparent spheres with light shining from within. Spheres transform into something like halos (hard to describe the imagery) covering infinity. So much is happening at the same time. There is multiple imagery with multiple awarenesses. I now know that I am becoming a witness to different layers of the universe. Suddenly everything turns black. I don't see anything, I don't feel anything. While nothing is happening, everything happens....
I could not write or talk about the experience for almost a year.
Robert: Simply incredible! What did you take from this lucid dream experience? What did it come to mean to you?
I am still "unfolding" its meaning and significance. As you know it is difficult to describe these types of experiences in a regular dream report. For me poetry is the only way to capture the spirit of the experience. The experience was similar to what Sri Aurobindo refers to as involution and evolution. Hyperspace lucidity experiences are moving into the depth of the great dimensions of the mind where wisdom lies; we sip from the Source where all creation comes from and then we return with a gift. Sometimes, the return can be disorienting. Also, the part of this experience that was overwhelming was what happened followed this lucid dream before I woke up:
I fell from this lucid dream to a "false awakening." In this state I reached for my journal and begin writing. Then I hear a noise next door. I get up but I am very dizzy. I open the door and walk on to the deck. I open the next door where I see my friend/housemate Tish is sitting looking at some old beads. Her grandmother is sitting in front of her. I tell Tish that I am having an important lucid dream and that she should not wake me up. I go back to my room and lie down. But soon I wake up and turn to see my journal and it is empty. I realize I had a false awakening following the experience. It took me a while to move out of bed. (This experience happened between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm. I am an early riser and often lie down around 11:00 am and in the afternoon). I finally managed to walk out on to the deck. I saw my friend Tish in the lower balcony. I asked her if she had visitors and that I heard noises. She said no but she said she was upstairs in her office that was located next to my bedroom off the deck. She had been looking through an old box of beads given to her by her grandmother and that she was thinking about her while looking at the beads! When we cross-examined the timing, I realized that in my false awakening, I had had an Out- of- Body Experience in which I could see her in real time. In that state I was able to read her thoughts as a projected image of her grandmother. That is, in my dream experience her grandmother was sitting in the chair!
Robert: Tell us more about "the blackness." How did you experience it in the lucid dream? What did it come to mean to you? Is it the blackness of infinite potentiality?
My experience of blackness or the Void is the unity consciousness where all is One and one is all. The Void is the space of perpetual creation. It is not empty or void, it is a space of the mind that connects us to all dimensions, sometimes simultaneously or in an instant. It is like connecting to the source of prayer. It is the oneness with our totality of being, the essence and the source of creation. It sounds like a cliché but it is true! It has been said for thousands of years but I feel we are in a time where we can experience these dimensions ourselves through practice. Spirituality no longer needs to be projected outside of ourselves, but we all can experience its depth. To me the seat of wisdom lies in the Void. Void is creation. If we hold the space with right intention, we receive great wisdom and understanding. The evolution of consciousness deepens upon experiencing the far reaching depths of these dimensions. The great sages and prophets have touched upon these experiences and shared their great wisdom.
Robert: How does it feel to lose the sense of one's (ego) self? Obviously, some aspect continues to perceive - a fact that calls in its own set of questions. But what do you make of this disappearance of the ego self? What does it say about the nature of the self? (Is it very common in your lucid dreams?)
This is a very good question. We are complex and multidimensional beings with multidimensional selves. Which self is experiencing, which self is dreaming, which self is lucid and who is the dream ego? The question of "Who am I?" has been a major philosophical discourse. In transcendent experiences the duality of all different selves integrates into the unity of all Selves; in that moment there is a sense of unity with all existence. The disappearance of the "dream body" is part of this evolution and integration. I think one of the major misunderstandings of the Eastern spiritual traditions is the assumption that one has to annihilate the self. Actually one has to have a strong and grounded sense of self to approach these types of practices otherwise it is very disorienting and confusing. One can mix realities and become delusional in the waking state.
In my experiences of various lucid dimensions, in particular when the dream is not bounded to the familiar narrative of perceived reality, my dream body disappears. This often happens in transition from one dimension to the next. The dream body transforms suddenly or gradually, but the sense of self remains. One can lose the dream body but still be in duality. The identified personality might still be present but in a very insignificant way. Then there are experiences of unity of self. There is a sense of surrender and trust with no particular emotions attached to it. There is no "self" or "I" but there is a presence, a knowing, that all is well and that whatever happens is part of the unfolding of creation. Sometimes there is no image to hold on to, thoughts to grab on to, or emotions to feel but a sense of suspending yet evolving consciousness is present. It is as if we are plugged into a line that connects the universe with various dimensions of our being and depending on our receptivity, we can receive incredible information or wisdom from this mysterious source of our Greater Mind.
Lucid dreaming is an important practice to experience the fullness and complexity of the self and discover the nature of the self and reality.
Robert: From your subsequent work on lucid dreams and the divine, what did you find and learn about lucid dreamers who sought an experience of the divine in their lucid dreaming?
The most important part of the study revealed that our belief system has a direct and powerful impact on our experience. This was a great learning and teaching. How do we acquire our beliefs about spirituality? What assumptions do we carry with us and how do those assumptions shape our experiences and reality? The study showed that our core spiritual beliefs affect our dreaming experience. Also the way we formulate our intention and incubation has a direct effect on our dreams. These are the two major findings.
In general the exploration of divine in lucid dreaming has been very positive and in some cases extremely life changing for the participants, also for many people I work with in my classes and retreats. Sometimes fear arises and we work with the core assumptions which is very important. The study also brought more questions to ponder and study.
Robert: What advice would you give our lucid dreaming readers if they decide to seek an experience of the divine in the lucid state?
The very first question I asked the participants in the study was what was their concept of the Divine? I still think this is a good place to start. This question helps to clarify core beliefs and assumptions. Then I would ask, "Are you really ready to call in this incubation?!" These types of incubations and intentions are existential and life changing. It is important to know that you are ready to face any challenge because you might be confronted with your deep core beliefs.
I highly recommend doing mediation practices and also energetic psycho-spiritual practices such as yoga, Ta'i Chi, Chi Qung or any other system that deals with the body and energy. (Having a good teacher is important.) Through these practices your body and mind are open to receive and sustain experiences that are otherwise difficult to maintain.
For me, lucid dreaming is a spiritual practice, and in order to incubate a lucid dream of this nature, I prepare myself for a while by doing practices that can open my psyche, spirit, and body. I have found that these practices help the quality, frequency, and integration of these experiences into daily life.
Also clarifying your intention is important. Formulate the incubation phrase or question and then examine it to see if the incubation allows openness to new experience or is it just leading you to what you already know. The most important part of this type of incubation is humility. We all come from different spiritual backgrounds and to respect other's beliefs and experiences is very important. Many years ago, in a book on lucid dreaming, I was misquoted by saying, "people who have impersonalized experience of divine had a deeper experience than the personal experience of the divine." This was not really true and who am I to judge anyone's depth of experience? Unfortunately, throughout years, I have witnessed people trying to put themselves above others because they have had incredible spiritual experiences in their lucid dreams. The question is: What is spiritual? And what makes certain dreams more spiritual than others? It is wonderful to have highly impactful dream experiences but it is essential that the experience be integrated and be a source for growth of consciousness, not only personal but for the good of all beings. I truly believe, with practice, we all have an incredible capacity to experience the depth and mysterious dimensions of the Great Mind.
Robert: Along with lucid dreaming, you seem to have a deep interest in art and creativity. Does this interest come about as an expressive outgrowth of your experiences in lucid dreaming? Or, did you first have a deep interest in art, and then realize the artistry of the mind in dreams and lucid dreaming?
For a long time I was split between being an artist and a scientist. Art and science were always equal interests and parallel inquiries in my life. I studied medicine for three years. In my country, we had to choose our major at age fifteen! The last three years of high school were equivalent to the first three years of college here. In studying medicine we had to do a daily drawing of all the intricacies of the human body, cells, skeleton, muscles and layers from skin to organs to brain to nervous system. Our tests often included detailed color drawings. Other students spent a very short time on the drawings but I would spend hours illustrating. What I was really interested in was art, but medicine was the way I could practice art! Also my older brother influenced me a great deal as he was very artistic. He also studied medicine and became a microbiologist. We used to do experiments with art and science together and often created art installations related to geometry to decorate our room. During this same period, I was paying very close attention to my dream and lucid dreaming world.
For me, art and dreaming came together in 1981 when I took a course on psychophysiology at the University of Wisconsin and studied the complexity of the brain more in depth. In that class I fell madly in love with the mechanism, image and the shape of the brain! I thought the brain was among the most beautiful and mysterious creations. I loved its undulating lines; the connections of synapses; each small center responsible for the different aspect of our body, emotions and thoughts; and its chemistry, intricacy and intelligence. I still think it is the most marvelous and mysterious aspect of the human body! I became obsessed with not only studying the brain but drawing it! Soon my medical illustrations of the brain took a surrealist turn for me. I began painting my dreams inside the image of the brain.
Robert: Have you ever sought artistic works or artistic solutions in the lucid dream state? What happened?
Yes, the majority of my work in the past 25 years has been informed by my lucid dreams. I no longer try to illustrate dreams but choose the most luminous part of the experience and allow the creative process to take me back to the dream. The act of creation becomes the unfolding of the dream and the creation becomes a new dream. I sometimes work with the energy of the dream rather than the image of the dream. Sometimes I stay with one series and one aspect of a lucid dream for years. The series "Lucidity, Line and Light" came directly from three lucid dreams in which I experienced matter interfacing with inner light. In these experiences I was a witness to the transformation of form into emptiness, dense matter into luminous light. In some of these lucid dreams my dream body disappeared and I moved through the light while trying to experience what the inner light is made out of. Often I ask, "What is the source of the inner light?" It took me years to find a painting medium to explore this topic. Since 1995, I have been creating textured paintings that I call "collograph paintings." It comes from the tradition of "collograph printing," a form of printmaking that I was trained in during the early 1980s. Currently I am experimenting with video, which I love because I can capture the multidimensional experiences with movement, sound and special effects. I also take my unfinished artwork and incubate dreams from them and find the next step or solution for the piece. Often I put my half-finished painting in front of my bed and contemplate the painting as I fall asleep. I try to fall asleep lucidly with the painting in my mind. Frequently the image begins to shift and change. Most often I later incorporate these movements into my artwork.
Robert: When did you first begin working with lucid dreams and art?
My first "dream inspired painting" was in 1981when I was living in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It was a dream of seeing the alchemical imagery of "Squaring the Circle," an image which I later found in Carl Jung's book Man and His Symbols.
The dream opened up many other dreams so I began working the imagery into a form of a brain. The painting initially was called "Pons and Medulla in Dream Reality" then later I changed it to the simpler name "Conscious Dreaming." Although "Conscious Dreaming" was painted so long ago and it has been seen and reproduced so many times, it is still mysterious to me. In retrospect, I see this painting as my initiation into painting from within. I had had several lucid dreams of transforming from a woman into a man, a black and white twin merging together and a face morphing into a different shape. The painting became a dreaming process itself. The experience and the painting turned out to be very significant milestones in my life and psyche. At the time, I was an undergraduate student double majoring in art and psychology. My painting style was Photo Realism, Persian miniature paintings and landscapes. Once I had this urge to capture my dreams in painting, I knew I could not paint at the school anymore, because it was too drastic of a change and I was not understood by my painting teacher. The truth was that I did not know what I was doing myself, but I was haunted by something new. I heard of a sympathetic patron of the arts who owned a two-story historical brick building downtown and used the first floor as his shoe store business and the second floor, he rented to independent artists and charged little to just pay for the electricity! It was a wonderful space and for the first time I felt free to create whatever I wished. By then I had so much art schooling and training that all I needed was a space to create from within and not something from outside of me. I found my freedom and it was marvelous! Also once we began studying Surrealism in my art history class, I felt myself coming to life. Like many of the Surrealists, I was totally haunted by Giorgio de Chirico. His paintings awakened something very archetypal inside of me. I did many paintings in his style.
Robert: What was the reaction to your dream paintings?
When I showed my first finished "dream" painting to my painting teacher at the University he criticized it right away. He said I was taking too many psychology courses and that I was going in the wrong direction! But I had a very strong inner conviction that I was on the right track. His comments did not sit well with me so I decided to get a different opinion. I submitted the painting to an annual statewide, juried art competition in Wisconsin. The competition was juried by the Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The artwork was accepted and I took this acceptance as a sign and a confirmation that my direction in art had to come from within. From then on my art education focused on private mentorship. Ironically before the opening of the exhibition, I had a lucid dream in which I was walking into the exhibition gallery and saw where my painting was hung. On the night of the opening, I had deja vu. I had been in the opening in my lucid dream and the painting was hung exactly where it was in my dream! That entire experience made a very strong impression on my psyche and triggered a host of other art gallery dreams. For a long time after that experience, every time I walked into a gallery in my dream I became lucid. I would often find artwork in these galleries with my name next to it! I developed a technique to wake myself after examining the details of the artwork. Because of these experiences, I became more of an "experimental artist." That is, in my dreams, I was presented with different types of artwork and my challenge in waking was to recreate them. Besides painting and drawing, I explored many different art techniques and mediums, from printmaking techniques to marbling to mask making to sound to theater performance. It has been an absolute adventure. If a dream is impactful for me, I will create a series of works related to that one dream for a number of years.
Robert: A number of painters have been inspired by dreaming and dream imagery. André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist movement, wrote: "I believe in the future resolution of the two states of dreams and reality into a sort of absolute reality or surreality." Does lucid dreaming assist in the resolution of these two states, dreams and reality? Or, does lucid dreaming exist as the "state between" dreams and reality - the absolute or surreal state? What implications do those ideas suggest?
I think lucid dreaming does both: assists in the resolution of the state of dreaming and waking reality, since the waking consciousness is present within dreaming consciousness; and lucid dreams could be experienced as a "state between" dreams and waking reality similar to lucid hypnagogia which implies a surreal state. What is the implication? Our complex Mind includes waking, dreaming, and other states of consciousness. To access the vastness of our Mind and its potential, we need the flexibility to move from one state of consciousness to another that helps to broaden our perception. Lucid dream practices are a creative way of expanding our perception so we can see with much larger vision than our everyday seeing.
The word "Surrealist" was first mentioned by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire in his play Les Mamelles de Tirésias in 1917. He referred to the play as a "Surrealist drama." In some ways being in touch with the dreaming world and becoming awakened in it is a form of Surrealist drama! In homage to Apollinaire, Breton gave the name "Surrealism."
Although Breton did not write much about lucid dreaming he was well aware of lucid dreaming, because he knew of the lucid dream research of Marquis Hervey de Saint-Denys. In his work Communicating Vessels (1933), Breton reflected on Saint-Deny's exploration of lucid dreaming, which caused him to question the nature of reality, explore the possibility of an independent dimension, and wonder about the nature of the unconscious.
Surrealists show us the very first step in the exploration of the unconscious, the state in between conscious and unconscious, the natural evolution of surrealism captures the depths and dimensions of the conscious Mind. I am very grateful to have found two of the Surrealist members Gordon Onslow Ford and Robert Matta. Although they did not explore lucid dreaming in their art, the dimensions they explored were very similar to the hyperspace lucidity.
Robert: You collaborated with Onslow Ford for many years. I believe you met him in 1989. Tell us about that meeting. How did you meet him? What was there in his work that resonated with your experiences in lucid dreaming?
When I moved to the hills of Inverness, California in 1987, I had no idea that I moved ten minutes away from Gordon Onslow Ford's home! Although it took two years before we met, I believe we were in some form of communication in other dimensions.
While working on my research on the spiritual dimensions of lucid dreaming, I was having many lucid dreams similar to the spaces Onslow Ford captured in his paintings. I had never seen his paintings before nor did I know about him. But ironically in my daily walk in the forest, I often would see a house and a studio on a beautiful land in the valley and wondered who lived there. But because I was in a reclusive period of my life focusing on my research and writing, I did not inquire about it.
Even though we lived in a small town, there was no occasion for a chance encounter because he also was a hermit! We finally met but it was through a series of synchronicities in the fall of 1989. The events that led to our meeting somehow related to dreams. At the time, I was writing a chapter for Krippner's book on dream and art and went to the local photographer, Richard Allen, to have my paintings photographed. I saw a small painting on his wall that I recognized as a hyperspace lucidity image. That is the first time I heard about Gordon Onslow Ford. Richard lent me a book by Gordon called Creation. Then he told me that Gordon lived only five minutes away but he told me
that he was a recluse and a very private person. I borrowed the book and finished it in a few hours. I loved the book so much I made a complete copy of it. I was totally ecstatic soaking up every page of the book. I recognized many of the images of my lucid dreams in his paintings and that his philosophy was absolutely in line with my discoveries.
Around the same time a friend asked me to hold a dream group in her home in Inverness. I limited the group to only 6 people. It turned out one of the group members was the assistant to Gordon Onslow Ford! I asked her if it was possible to meet him and she said what I had heard before that he was a very private person and did not see too many people. But she agreed to take a letter to him. I was not really attached to actually meeting him personally, but I wanted him to know that his paintings and philosophy were in line with my research on hyperspace lucidity. I thought he might be interested to hear about that.
Soon after the delivery of the letter, I was invited for an afternoon tea. As I parked my car and walked toward his house, I recognized the hill and the ridgeline in front of his house. The top of that ridge was where I took my daily walks and it was his house and studio that I saw for two years! I did not know anything about him personally, his history, his background, his involvement with the Surrealists and, strangely enough, that was not my main concern. All I was curious about was to know whether he painted from his hyperspace lucidity and what his experience and his painting process were like. Also I had stopped painting for a year because I could not capture my hyperspace lucid experiences, they were too complex. How did he arrive at these dimensions and how did he capture them in painting? From our first meeting it became very clear that we were deeply connected not only in our interests, visions, and even personal history, but we were also deeply connected in a metaphysical way that remained a mystery for both of us. We discovered so much in common it was uncanny. He always said that we knew each other "since eternity!" And that was true. When he took me to his studio, I felt he took me to a lucid dream. I recognized one painting after another. I had experienced those imageries in my hyperspace lucidity. When I asked him about lucid dreaming, he did not know about it but because he knew about meditation, metaphysics, and dreams, he understood what I was exploring. It was a marvelous meeting.
After our initial meeting, I saw him a few times and sent him the book by Krippner with the chapter on dream art. He liked my writing style, and in the summer of 1991, he invited me to help him with his upcoming book Insights. That was my first collaboration with him in which I read through years of his notebooks, chose writings, and composed them into poetic prose. That summer I spent six weeks in his guesthouse and learned all I could about his art and philosophy. We took daily walks in the woods and conversed about art. I would tell him about lucid dreaming phenomena and he would tell me how he arrived at his paintings that resembled lucid dream spaces. I watched him paint and saw the progression of one painting after another. One painting would lead him to the next dimension just like how we adventure from one space in a lucid dream to the next. In exchange for my helping him with his book, I asked him to give me a critique of my artwork. He was an absolute master in seeing. A year later, after I helped him with his book, he invited me to be his consultant and collaborator. Among several books I worked on with him was Once Upon a Time. But our major project, however, was the creation and establishment of the Lucid Art Foundation in 1998. Lucid Art is an evolution from the Surrealist tradition.
Robert: How did Lucid Art come about and how do you define it?
For many years Gordon and I worked on a name for a direction in art that captured the invisible dimensions. Many names arose and dissolved until finally we came upon the term "Lucid Art" that captured all that we were focusing on. What really helped to clarify this concept was an art exhibition I curated linking lucid dreaming, meditation, and inner world painting and called it "Through the Light." It took a few months of going back and forth on the definition until we settled on: "Lucid Art is an expression of the Creative Force of the Universe expressed in the spontaneous work of art that elicits in the viewer aspects of the inner worlds."
Both of us as artists and writers were convinced that there is a creative force in the universe and that the artist is an instrument through which creativity flows. The research I did on the viewer and the inner world paintings became an important aspect of Lucid Art (See "Lucid Art and Hyperspace Lucidity," Dreaming, March 2003). Lucid Art does elicit and impact the viewer. The creation takes one to the space of awe and insights, and it evokes forgotten dreams. Certain creations elicit an immediate call in the viewer to experience the depths, vastness and dimensions of the inner worlds. These creations become waking lucid experiences. Besides some artistic creations, which can impact the viewer in this way, nature is an immediate and clear example of Lucid Art. We love nature and something happens when we spend time in nature. It feels like coming home. This sense of home takes us to the depths of our spiritual core where creation is in bounty and we are fully lucid and awakened. Some artworks inspire and open us to these dimensions. Lucid Art awakens the unconscious to full consciousness.
Robert: Was he involved in dreaming as a means of artistic expression? How did dreaming affect his art?
When he was with the Surrealists in the 1930s, he paid attention to his dreams and wrote them down, but he soon realized it was impossible to capture dreams in painting. Once he became interested in exploring the fourth dimension he stopped capturing dream symbolism. Although he did not paint from his dreams, he often would say that at night in his sleep he traveled in great dimensions and he captured glimpses of them in the morning. But if you asked him what the dream experience was, he often did not remember his dream. Also he hardly wrote his dreams down. He kept his journal more impersonal and philosophical than about himself, so he did not illustrate dreams in his painting.
Robert: From an article of yours, I find this quote on Onslow Ford's philosophy of painting, called Inner-Realism: "In spontaneous painting the Mind acts directly through the hand of the painter to the painting and never-seen-before images appear. The painter, as a separate individual, becomes an instrument of the Mind Shared by All, the creative spirit of the cosmos.... The principle preoccupation of Inner Realism is to express the nature of an Inner World as directly as possible from the Open Mind." (Onslow Ford, 2001) If one replaces "painter" and "painting" with lucid dreamer and lucid dreaming, does one get a feeling for the connection between your and his views of the experience of lucid dreaming/painting?
Yes, absolutely. The inner world to which he refers is very similar to what we call lucid dreaming, but he takes it to the level of the impersonal and transcendental. He often referred to "Great Spaces of the Mind Shared by All." Experientially one can reach this state through certain dimensions of lucid dreaming where the collective consciousness resides. His paintings captured these dimensions of the mind. He called it "Inner Realism" because the inner reality is as real as the outer reality. Inner Realism is a way to affirm the reality of the inner worlds.
Robert: You have decades of experience in lucid dreaming. What still excites you about lucid dreaming?
What still excites me about lucid dreaming is the exploration of the vast dimensions of the Mind and the potential for a greater Awakening. Through my experiences in lucid dreaming, I am convinced that we are multidimensional beings and there are so many dimensions yet to discover. The exploration is endless and limitless. I have been an explorer of the mind since childhood and from experiences in lucid dreaming I know for a fact that our mind is as vast as the universe. Also lucid dreaming is where I receive my teachings.
Although I have been fortunate to have great teachers in my life but also many of my teachings comes directly from my lucid dreams. For many years I had lucid dreams of a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who appeared in my dreams and taught me many practices. A few years later, in my waking, I saw his picture and recognized him. The first time I met the teacher he looked at me as if he knew me too! When I shook his hand he said "Where have I met you?" I said: "In my dreams. You come and teach me in my dreams." And then he gave me a beautiful smile and nodded his head in agreement and said "Yes, that is where I have met you!" Many people in my life whom I have deep connections with, I had already met them either in my dreams or lucid dreams. My life is led by dreams.
Robert: When you think of the cutting-edge issues in lucid dreaming, what do you think of? Any personal lucid dreams that bear on these issues?
We are really just beginning. There is so much potential for discovery. Or perhaps we have already done so much but we are not awakened to it! Jayne Gackenbach and her pioneering Lucidity Letter brought many interesting researchers together and we explored many ideas and topics. Each one of those topics is a seed for a much larger exploration. Stephen LaBerge continues with his research and dedication to the field, which is admirable. And we have been lucky that the Tibetan Buddhist teachers are sharing their knowledge with us. They have been doing this practice for thousands of years and they know so much about the mind, which we need to learn from them. After twenty years of teaching, one important topic that keeps coming up in my courses is lucid dreaming and healing. We only have anecdotal reports and a few laboratory studies, but it is important to have solid research done on this topic. I really hope more theses, dissertations, and laboratory work will focus on this area. The inquiry into the mind/body connection is very important, such as the transformation of physical body through lucid dreams.
Naturally, issues related to nightmares are very important, how does lucid dreaming assist nightmare and trauma? Visitation from the deceased is very powerful, and in some ways, is a shamanic practice of connecting with the ancestors. How do these experiences impact the dreamer's life? Also the issues relating to dream characters and interaction with them is very interesting to me. How is it that we become lucid in our dreams but it is still difficult to convince our dream characters to gain lucidity? If we look at the gestalt perspective that each aspect of the dream is part of ourselves, how come one aspect of our psyche awakens and the others are totally unwilling to wake up?
For me personally I continue my practice and research in exploring the phenomenology of the multidimensional and the spiritual dimensions of the lucid mind. Also the relationship between altered states of consciousness and hyperspace lucidity interest me mainly because of my shamanic practices. I would be very interested to receive others' dream reports of these experiences.
Robert: Thanks for your observations into lucid dreaming. Any parting thoughts?
In the first academic course I taught on dreams in 1984 in Canada, I addressed a group of young undergraduates by introducing the topic of lucid dreaming as "lucid dreaming is lucid living." I remember they were not so impressed by this proposition. They wanted dreaming techniques and wanted to have fun in their dreams but not be reminded or bothered with waking reality. That statement is still one of my strongest core beliefs about lucid dreaming. I approach lucid dreaming more as a practice and, as a teacher of it, I have great respect and reverence for its wisdom. Lucid dreaming is to wake up to the ultimate reality of who we are and to discover the depth and the mystery of the Mind.
Thank you for inviting me to participate in this interview.
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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:
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You can also check us out at www.dreaminglucid.com
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Dream: Semantic Protection
Stan Kulikowski II
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DATE : 10 feb 2006 07:37
DREAM : semantic protection
=( yesterday was a thursday. i spent most of the afternoon out shopping for the last parts i need to build a new garage door to replace the old metal one which was damaged in the hurricanes last summer. the evening was just pointless television for mother and i answered some email. the fourth season of _smallville_ has been somewhat disappointing when the tension between lana and clark has been misdirected, but it was not a theme that could be continued endlessly so the series seems to have stalled, just introducing more superman elements where they do not belong. i refreshed my mind with a few pages in the fourth volume of _liberty meadows_ and got to sleep just after midnight. i think i have been sleeping too much lately but do not know what to do about it. )=
the white house where the president of the united states lives, is situated on the top of a steep hill, surrounded by ornamental lawns and gardens. my job on the staff is the maintenance of a large bodyguard robot whose function is to protect the president at all times.
but something is not right. the hulking robot has malfunctioned and one by one it has eliminated every other secret service guard and many of the civil service people who normally work on the staff. the white house is becoming a rather empty and lonely place as the robot systematically removes person after person. so far, it has not actually had to kill anyone, but by manipulating official transcripts and some personal threats, it has gotten everyone reassigned to remote locations or driven them away. george w bush does not seem to notice, being somewhat simple minded, he is the last person to perceive any danger from the mechanical guardian.
in one of the smaller offices of the west wing i am meeting with one of my assistants and the last remaining secretary. she is sitting at her computer preparing a report of how the robot has gone awry. my assistant has selected a portion of the functional schematics which is labeled 'syntactic constructs of robotic protection'. the major section that is highlighted says 'the 475 degree gel vapor gun'.
i shake my head. "no, this is not right. the malfunction is not in the syntax of its operation, but in the formal semantics. sure, it has the vapor gun, but it has not used it because it has conceived its goal of isolation through its understanding of the meaning of its use of its various structural parts."
i show the assistant another portion of the functional schematics which is labeled 'semantics of robotic protection' and point to the subsection 'separation from danger'. the secretary highlights that portion of the schematics on her computer screen then cuts and pastes it over the other part. we now all agree and she sends it off to the secret service offices elsewhere in the city. at least they will now be alerted to the problem.
i hear a noise outside in the hall. it is the robot come into this part of the building in its search to drive everyone away from its president. i silently wave my hand to keep the other two quiet as i open the door and step outside to confront the machine.
it turns toward me as i step out of the office. it looks like the ED3000 from the robocop movie, filling up almost the entire hallway.
"you must leave these premises." it tells me in its gravel machine voice.
"i will go in a moment, but i must make an adjustment to your circuitry before i depart." since i am recognized as its creator, the robot opens a large panel near its head. i think it realizes that i sometimes tinker with its guts and this is the most efficient way to get me to leave.
i want to remove its vapor gun which is its most dangerous capability. this will help the clean up squads who will come from the secret service soon. but when i try to extract the vapor gun, it is too heavy and strongly attached for me to remove without special tools, so i pull and pull on a plastic ribbon tape of its control circuits. when the tape finally pulls taunt, i use my pocket knife to cut through it. now, the vapor gun is at least inactive. the robot adjusts its position a little in a manner that suggests uncertainty. this is a warning to me because robotic motion never wastes movement in the manner that overly redundant biologic systems do.
i decide that i better make good on my promise to leave or the robot will further degrade in its operation. i call my assistant and the secretary to come out of the office and we go outside. the robot follows us to make sure that we leave it alone with the dimly aware president talking to himself about his pointless beliefs in the empty white house.
on the white house lawn there is a model of a wright flyer, but it is made with a bright red plastic. i string some controls strings along the length of aircraft and give them to the assistant who sits behind my seat. the secretary has to lay down on her belly on the wing beside us. i climb into the front pilot seat and press the button which fires up powerful electric motors turning the propellers.
with a whirring noise the flyer begins to slide forward on its runners in the grass. we are helped by the steep downhill grade of the lawns.
we no sooner get airborne than my assistant pulls on the control strings too hard. the wing tips deflect upward too much and the flyer goes up too high and almost crashes into the lower branches of a large oak tree. i yell back over the noise of the motors and yank the control strings forward, but i over compensate and we stall out.
the assistant now pulls too much on the left control string and the flyer tips over sideways so its left wing now scrapes along the ground and we crash forward. we slide to rest on the top of a flat bed train car which is parked at the bottom of the hill.
i decide that there is too much problem trying to coordinate our control of the aircraft and must restring those control strings so only i can use them. once this is done, we are going to have trouble getting airborne again since we no longer have the downhill run to help, but fortunately the train begins to move forward which creates enough wind lift to help us take off. but still it is not quite enough for the flyer to get up.
suddenly there is a surge upward which i did not expect. as we fly away from the train below, i see that the secretary has gotten off to remain behind. without her weight on the wing, we have enough lift to get away.
i rev the engines to gain some speed so the flyer manages to go just a little faster than the train below us. on the flat bed car just ahead of us there is a tag sale of household goods. the secretary comes forward as i turn the flyer to circle back and come back to the tag sale again. the secretary looks at several novels and books for sale, and she takes a good look at the cover of one, 'psychosexual cinematics', which i have read.
"what do men want?" she shouts up at me as we glide by again.
"pragmatic variability." i shout back. and some semantic stability would be nice if our robots do not malfunction, i think.
=( awake 07:15. i know that the real white house is not isolated up on the top of a steep hill, but in this dream that seemed to be an important landscape. in waking life i am not very interested in politics which seem to me to be a poorly regulated mixture of personal greed against common interest, but i seem to be near the center of it for this dream. the emphasis on robotics seems to me to be utter nonsense just beyond the edge of sensibility, much like the controls for the wright flyer or psychosexual cinematics, whatever that is. i suppose this also says something about my view on the pointless yet dangerous nature of politics in our lives. some of the contents of this dream like vapor guns or pragmatic variability have a certain rich feel to it, but it now seems like such a waste of my time to dream about this and i wonder what this could mean about me.
)=
--
. stankuli@etherways.com
===
| | trust no one who uses the term 'empowerment'
--- -- a primer of late 20th century rhetoric
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The Calling to Be a Super Hero
© 2006 Linda Lane Magallon
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Somewhere after midnight / In my wildest fantasies
Somewhere just beyond my reach / Is someone reaching back for me
Racing in the thunder / And rising with the heat
It's going to take a Superman / To sweep me off my feet
I need a hero / I'm holding out for a hero
'Til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong / And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
(Steinman/Pitchford: Holding Out For A Hero)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Lois Lane?" they'd ask, with eyebrows raised, eyes sparkling, voices full of expectation.
"No, *Linda* Lane," I'd reply emphatically. Cripes, did I look like a Lois Lane? Same dark hair, maybe, but the woman was a wimp. No super powers at all. Linda Lane was my maiden name. Being misidentified as "Lois" while a child was the start of my affinity with the Superman mythos. Reading the DC comics had left me intrigued, but not any more than my contemporaries.
Superman came to television about the same year my family purchased our first black-and-white TV. I vividly remember the impact the program had on me. Suddenly, Superman was no frozen snapshot of a flying person, but a living, moving being. It didn't matter that, when she went to Los Angeles for a convention and movie studio tour, my mother reported that the special effects were just an optical illusion. For me, the visual image was real.
With a rush of emotion, I was no longer watching an image on the screen. I could reach out and feel my feet hit the floor. One, two, three steps, feet together, bend knees, bring arms up, push off legs, throw arms out and stretch into the infinity of sky.
The feeling propelled me forward in a huge wave, sending my heart soaring just as surely as Superman launched himself out the open window of the Daily Planet. Each time I watched the program, energy would course through me like an electric current. I would grit my teeth, grip the chair or drive my fingernails into the palms of my hands, hoping against hope that my brothers and parents would not see what was happening to me.
Sometimes the experience was too much to keep in. On the pretext of going to the bathroom, I'd get up and leave the living room. But I'd soon sneak back and peek around the corner to watch the rest of the show, at least until another flying scene occurred. Then I'd twist from the doorway and lean against the wall until my breathing and heartbeat had returned to normal.
The most opaque sharing of my interest in flying or super heroes brought blank looks and, if pushed, derision. I was quite convinced that if I really let people know my experience, I would have been laughed at, ridiculed, ex-communicated, bound and taken in a straight-jacket by white-clothed men to be tossed into a deep, dark dungeon with the key thrown away. Given what I know now about the rigidities of the psychology, religion and culture of the 1950's, I was probably smart to keep my mouth shut. Given the dynamics of my birth family, I felt I had no choice.
Sympathy springs from the desire to put oneself into someone else's shoes, to be drawn into their world. This happened to me when I watched movies or TV. It could also happen in daily life. First hand, I would experience the wrath and disdain of my parents. But second hand, I could identify with my younger siblings every time they bore the brunt of parental anger and emotional manipulation. My brothers and I recall being
in tears most every day. Feelings of painful anguish and utter helplessness were common to all of us. They welled up and overflowed into the land of dreams. As a result, my dreaming world was a nocturnal hell. My sleeping repertoire included not a single positive or uplifting example. Instead, I had a chilling number of Titanic nightmares, including the repetitious variety.
______________________
I am running, running, pushing, forcing, faster, faster. It's so hard to move myself! I am pursued by the Mafioso. The Men In Black are running, leering after me. As I press my head and torso ahead, my legs lift behind me. In time, I become airborne. I am
spread flat on the air, trying to get ahead through the thick atmosphere. But it's like pressing my body through molasses. I can never get higher than the Mafioso's outstretched arms. They grab for my ankles...
______________________
Yes, in dreams I could fly, but this super power did me no good. I was neither fast enough nor high enough to avoid the Mafioso. Sometimes the Men in Black actually managed to grasp my feet. More often, the nightmare ended before they could do so. Now I realize that I had dreamt a perfect symbol of criminal family energy, times two. These Italian godfathers with black clothes and dark hats represented double trouble: my birth family and the Roman Catholic Church. Many years later my sisters would tell me that each had the same nightmare. But I didn't know this while we were children. Sharing dreams just wasn't done. So, each of us suffered in sleep, alone.
When I left my abused childhood behind, I became partner to my husband and mother to my own two children. After more than a decade of home-bound child care, night school and part-time jobs, I had achieved an advanced academic degree and begun a full time career. This newfound activity gave me the confidence to consider divorcing my parents and leaving the religion of my youth. But whatever success I experienced in waking life made zero impact on my dreams. There, the Titanic themes were just as alive and terrifying as they had been when I was young. They kept up an unrelenting pounding on my psyche. I tried my best to avoid them. A successful night was when I remembered no dreams.
I had an aid to this repression of nocturnal stress. It was fantasy. Fantasy served as a buffer between the chaos of the day and the desired dreamless sleep. I discovered I could "change channels," distract myself from the residue of mundane conflict and anxiety by substituting a more pleasing scenario for my mind to view as I drifted into stupor.
There was one special fantasy that had been playing in my mind theater for decades. Each night was a new chapter or, more likely, a rerun of a favorite scene. When I became an adult, I was so embarrassed about this childish pastime that I tried to repress it, too. Unfortunately, as soon as I did, the nightmares erupted again, full blast. Eventually, I gave up and decided to enjoy the reverie as a respite unrelated to waking life. It was okay, as long as I told no one. You see, my fantasy had its genesis in that Superman TV show.
Of course, it grew and changed as I did. The super crime fighter was discarded first. I was more interested in the simple thrill and finesse of flight. A solitary hero didn't appeal, either.
I liked the idea of a league of compatriots. Each decade of my waking life made its contribution. For instance, the civil rights movement of the 60's ensured our organization would be multiethnic. It soon became multinational and, then, multigalactic. Simple comic stories gave way to sophisticated science fiction. My characters used teleportation gates to visit other planets, ruled by transplanted humans who were dominated by an alien species that wanted to re-conquer Earth. My own character, who I named Casey, was intensely involved in liberating dictatorship in favor of democracy.
It would be with amazement and a chilling sense of deja vu that I watched the *Star Gate* series appear on TV. I discovered that my private reveries weren't so personal after all. Evidently, on the edge of sleep, I had tapped into some sort of group unconscious.
However, there was an important difference. Instead of war technology, the emphasis in my fantasy was on psychic skills. No space ships, but super flying. No electronic communication, but telepathy between companions. These skills were but beginning to appear among humans, a harbinger of evolutionary progress. Or so the story went. Much of the plot was incorporated from other people's books, movie screenplays and television shows, although I contributed my own ideas, too. Nighttime would come and I'd trade in my waking persona for Casey, then teleport out of physical reality into the domain of high ideals. And hope thereby I wouldn't be pulled down by the Men In Black into the depths of disturbed dreams.
It was as if I lived 3 separate lives: waking state, imagination...and nightmare. And then, one night, the barriers between all three crumbled. A character from the fantasy crossed over and showed up in my dreams. No, not Superman nor even his updated fantasy version. It was a black female I'd named Willie who delivered me from the nightmare, because she had the same capabilities as her fantasy counterpart: super strength and the ability to fly. She carried me away from danger, soaring through the sky. Fantasy was born into dream, quickly followed by waking consciousness. Because I recognized my rescuer as Willie of the fantasy, I went lucid. For the first time in my life.
Furthermore, Willie addressed me, not as Linda, but my fantasy name, Casey. Even though I'd become aware of the fact that I was dreaming, I did not conclude that an invitation was being extended for my waking consciousness to enter the dream: that was just a serendipitous side effect. Rather, it was my fantasy self who was being called to manifest in the dream state. She could be a super hero in her own domain, but what about the me-in-the-dream? I already knew my dreaming self could fly sluggishly and slow. Could she do better? Did she secretly have the super ability to stand up to nightmares? Did she actually have the potential to become Casey in the world of dreams? And, if so, could I join in her triumphs first hand? Live out my fantasy in a way much more compelling and immediate than in imagination?
The breakthrough dream was so powerful, I went out and bought a spiral notebook to record it. After reviewing what I had written, I thought, "Flying with Willie is neat, but I wish I could fly by myself." A few nights later my wish was granted. Now I was the flyer, soaring over a Spanish monastery, city streets, sea cliffs, marshlands and a beautiful valley colored in brilliant greens. Now I was the rescuer, transporting a young boy to a vividly red brick hospital. My nightmares had been in black and while,
with rarely a tinge of color to relieve the monotony. Even in my breakthrough dream, the colors had been grayed out. But this dream! The colors and details were as sharp as any lucid dream I've had since then. Although I wasn't aware I was dreaming, I really felt like I was there, flying through a world as brilliant as the sunniest day in physical reality. Of course, I was there. Not as Linda, though. As Casey.
Manifesting as a strong and sturdy flyer had produced a bonus benefit: a change in the dreamscape. Not only was my dreaming self becoming more super, so was the entire dream. Flying had opened up a whole new vista in sleep. Just as Dorothy's cyclone had flown her from dull grey Kansas into multicolored Oz, so my body soaring through the air had transported me into a Technicolored land. But in the dream I had far more control than a house in a hurricane. No ruby red slippers for me -- I had super red boots.
Next: The Dilemma of Deep Dreaming
http://members.aol.com/caseyflyer/flying/dreams.html (Dream Flights)
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DreamRePlay
with David Jenkins, PhD
I dont measure up! Overcoming Your Worst Critic
January 20, 2006
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Dear Richard,
So often we are our own worst critic. Our self-criticisms can range from mildly upsetting to devastating. Dreams sometimes allow our critics to come out in full force and leave us feeling worse rather than better. The good news is that these dreams are, so to speak, tailored to our exact situation. With the right dream work, they can lead to pearls of wisdom. Here is an example that, on waking, left the dreamer feeling utterly inadequate but this week's technique, Uncovering The Back Story, freed her from a heavy burden.
Veronicas Dream:
I dream I am taking a test. My friend Alan is also taking the test. I look over and Alan has answered all 100 questions. I am trying as hard as I can but I am moving very slowly. I have only done three. I feel horrible.
I asked Veronica to tell the dream from Alans perspective. In other words, to imagine that Alan had the dream and Veronica appeared as a character in his dream. What would that be like for Alan? Veronica closed her eyes, thought about this, and got into Alans mindset. She told the dream as if it was Alans dream:
I am taking a test. Veronica is taking it also. Its very easy for me and I just whip through the questions. I see that Veronica is doing it very slowly and that she is very upset. She thinks theres something wrong because she isnt working as fast as me or the other class members. Shes going at her own pace. Theres nothing wrong with that. Theres no hurry. All she has to do is keep at it.
The kicker for Veronica, the point that really changed her understanding of the dream, is those last three sentences. They told her that whatever her concerns were, she was best off putting them aside; having heard the dream from Alans perspective, she now knew that she should ignore the undermining thoughts that she ought to be going faster. She could be assured that what she was doing was the fine. That lifted a load of Veronicas mind.
The dream-Alans assessment made a crucial difference on how she saw the dream. Instead of Im a failure for not going as fast as the others it left her with the internal knowledge that she was going at the pace that was right for her. The anxiety and discomfort that she had felt on awakening vanished.
The Back Story:
We are using a device here that film makers call the back story. Script writers often need to clarify for themselves what is going on with their characters; what are their the motivations and histories. While the story is being written, the writer can be far from clear about what is happening and why. To keep their own story on a straight line they will create a back story to fill in the plot for themselves. So, for their own benefit, they will compose brief stories or biographies of important characters describing these behind the scenes matters. Often the back story will become a story of its own: the Star Wars series and many others are ways of filling in the endless gaps that are found in any one story.
We assume we have the whole story when we tell a dream but the back story often provides crucial, missing pieces.
Letting Dream Characters Speak For Themselves:
I cant fully explain why this technique works but it does, and powerfully so. Being the different characters from the dream telling their back stories -- gives you options. When these dream characters talk, they have a ring of authority: You know you can trust what they say. In this case, Alans back story was a clear signal to Veronica that she could relax and trust what she was doing. It convinced Veronica that even when the world looks grim, she can have faith in herself.
Next time you have an upsetting dream, consider asking other characters to replay the dream and see what you learn from them.
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About Dream Of The Week:
Dream Of The Week is an experimental email from David Jenkins. It has the goal of explaining the benefits of this unique way of working with dreams to as wide an audience as possible. Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested.
If you have any feedback for me about Dream Of The Week, please send me an email.
Best wishes
David Jenkins
Dream RePlay
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email: davidj@dreamreplay.com
phone: (510) 644 2369
web: http://dreamreplay.com
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** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS
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Dream section editor Kat Peters-Midland returns from vacation with a varied collection of dreams with a woman turning into puppy then turning into little boy, lots of tornadoes in the sky, small shadowy creatures lurking in the dark, celestial beings chanting Om Namah Shivaya, and much more!
Dream title: Waffles
Dream date: 20/02/05
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I keep having this dream where I am in this shop and I buy waffles with cream. The man sells me a different sort every time but its the same man. But when I leave the shop it always look different outside BUT someone always verbally abuses me. Its always a male but they are different each time. But they yell at me or make rude sexual comments to me.
Dream comments: Why am I always buying waffles? I have just moved to London recently and am quite scared of walking in the dark as there are a lot of rapes here etc, is this related?
Dream title: shark...
Dream date: February 19th 2006
Dreamer name: lovethy3
Dream text: I am getting intimate with my new boyfriend and the dream switches to this aquarium room and my oldest daughter is sitting on the edge of this aquarium. And I try to reach her and before I can get to her she falls over into this pit and there is a shark. I try to go after her and can't reach her. There is blood but it ends up being mine and I see her but it is like she is somewhere else. Everything blurs and I wake up..
Dream comments: Scared and I go check on my children.. My heart is racing and I am crying after this dream.
Dream title: confusion...
Dream date: February 18th,2006
Dreamer name: lovethy3
Dream text: I am in this apartment and there are some people I know. Then it switches to: I am outside and this guy I have been talking to pulls up in a limo and he has masquerade makeup on. I go to him and he won't say anything. He kisses me then throws me over the hood of the limo and I fall into the sand. As I am falling I am in this new room and there are more people. Some I know and some I don't. They all have weird costumes on and I am trying to get away, but can't find a door. I can't breathe and then I finally give up. It switches again but I don't know what is happening.
Dream comments: I woke up sweating, confused and scared.
Dream title: when the skies chanted Om Namah Shivaya
Dream date: Jan 28 2005
Dreamer name: NN
Dream text: It was a cold January night and I felt my self detaching myself from the physical body. I rose above the deep blue clouds above. The sky was full of Rishis, sages and Brahmins chanting 'Om Namaha Shivaya'(Hail Lord Shiva). They were performing some yagna (sacrificial fire offerings). I was shocked to see so many celestial beings chanting simultaneously, I was scared and started t chant myself. But a few wary eyes looked in my direction wondering what a soul like mine was doing in their midst. Scared, I found myself returning to this body. Cold and shaken, I lay awake till morning.
Dream comments: This dream has been extremely lucid. I felt I was not really dreaming but entered another realm, another sphere.
Dream title: My pregnant friend
Dream date: 2/26/06
Dreamer name: JN
Dream text: I was talking with a friend, then another friend walks in and shes pregnant. I ask who the father is and it turns out to be me. So I freak out a little in my dream, but when I woke up I felt happy.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Angry Shadows
Dream date: 2/15/06
Dreamer name: Bill
Dream text: I had this dream that small, shadowy creatures lived in the odd, dark corners of my house. Nobody else was aware of them or ever saw them. But, in my dream I was sleeping and then woke up, and I could just FEEL them. Little skittering chills crept over me, and I could sense their stares fixing on me from the shadows. A sense of deep dread rose up inside me, because I knew that they were coming for me. Then they emerged and circled me, their eyes like red coals and their fur stretching back into the darkness. I could not move at all...I just had to wait in terror until they suddenly lunged at me from all sides...and then I woke up, screaming. Dream comments: Not a fun dream!
Dream title: Demon
Dream date: 2006
Dreamer name: SS
Dream text: My brother was accusing some girl with long black hair saying" You know youre dead!" The girl had replied No Im not", then my brother said "Yes you are! You were burned in a furnace! You know you were!" Then my brother arrogantly walked away. I was so scared that I followed him. We went to his bedroom and sat down, and within moments the girl came into the room. She said "Youre right I was burned in a furnace." I was horrified and just sat there as this creepy girl walked up to my brother and stabbed him. Then I woke up still half in the dream and it was playing in my mind. She came over to me and stabbed me and I tried to hit her (I tried to in real life to but without much effect since I was still asleep). She smiled and stabbed me again. I tried to kick her (in REAL life too) and she stabbed me again. I tried to hit her with my hand yet again and (in REAL life too) and she stabbed me one last time. Then I was relinquished from the dream.
Dream comments: I DID NOT WATCH A SCARY MOVIE BEFORE THIS DREAM!
Dream title: Baby
Dream date: Febuary-8-2006
Dreamer name: Anonymous
Dream text: I was having a baby girl. I was never pregnant, I just had her. And I was trying to escape my house.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Scary Scare Crow
Dream date: Multiple times
Dreamer name: NO
Dream text: At my Aunts house, everyone leaves to go pick up pizza. I'm waving goodbye as the scarecrow used as decoration on the porch starts to move. He comes after me, so I run up a hill with logs lying horizontal all the way up. The scarecrow chases me and once I trip and he catches my shirt, I tear away. I wake up to a ripped nightgown.
Dream comments: I have had this dream over and over in my life. The scarecrow only caught me the one time, but I got away. (Because I woke up)
Dream title: Flaming chicken wing
Dream date: 2-1-06
Dreamer name: Anonymous
Dream text: I was at a track meet with all of my friends. My strongest friend ran a race and won. Then we (including my dad) went to their house and ate chicken while watching movies in their kitchen. My dad and their dad were off working somewhere like always. Then all of the sudden my dad storms in the kitchen and holds up a flaming chicken wing. He then says "Jessie this is not working out." Then he says we have to go" and my response is "Nooooooooooooooooooo." I hang on to one of my friends while he is leaving.
Dream comments: My "friends" were a large group of people who live far away from me but we visit often. My dad tends to have temper tantrums. This dream has occurred at least 2 times.
Dream title: Tornadoes
Dream date: Feb 2, 2006
Dreamer name: HC
Dream text: My family (husband and kids) went home to AZ to visit some family. We were taken to an old house to visit my sister. It looked like it was going to fall apart and there was an old cellar downstairs but was really old and gray, and easily broken when you step on the wood. My sister and her husband started to fight and argue; my husband went to help her but was pushed. So I got our kids and went to say something to him. But as I went to the door, I noticed that the sky was cloudy with tornados; there were 14 to 16 little tornadoes in the sky in a line, like checkers are set up before you play. Then it started to get windy, things were flying through the walls, windows were smashing, and the wind was howling. There were other people at my sisters home that I could not recognize and I told them all to go to the cellar and sit down. I pulled my husband and sons around me and prayed. When I opened my eyes, it was daytime. We went to go look outside and saw houses that were smashed or blow apart from other areas. Everybody was getting out and looking at who survived and what had happened. So the rest of the day went by okay and it was still cloudy. But when night came, the tornados were back. This time they moved up closer. Once again I told people to come and sit. I grabbed my family and cried. The next morning, there were more people and more damaged houses. It was still cloudy and the tornados were up in the sky, but this time they were in the back yard. Then I heard them calling for four people and my husband was picked. I was going with him but then I was told I could not go. My husband pulled us with him saying this is my family if I go, they go too. Thats when I saw the tornados up in the sky just hanging, not moving or twisting up in the sky. I walked underneath them and they looked like branches. It was still cloudy, but I noticed that in the distance it was getting clear and the sky was blue. There was no death or blood, just people missing. My oldest son was gone when my husband was one of the chosen four. I had my youngest in my arms when I walked out to the back and saw the branch looking tornados up in the dark, cloudy, gray sky.
Dream comments: It looked so real.
Dream title: ALIENS!!!
Dream date: 01-24-06
Dreamer name: BUBBLES
Dream text: I was having a quiet evening just watching TV when I heard a knock at my door. I walked to my door and answered it. There was a very tall, bright green alien with the biggest yellow eyes standing there. I started screaming when the alien tried to grab me. I slammed the door and ran to my room. They were pounding on the doors and then got inside. A few minutes later they were in my room and it seemed they were going to kill me but I then awoke drenched in sweat.
Dream comments:
Dream title: Running
Dream date: 1-27-06
Dreamer name: JJ
Dream text: I was in a full sweat suit, with boots on, while running this path. It was like an obstacle course that was one way. I started running through the deep snow, then I came to a hill, which had tons of brush I had to get through. Then I came to a tree, which I then had to climb to the top, then back down and do it all over again. I did this about 10 times, and then I was exhausted. There was someone who seemed to be following me with each step, always telling me to keep going. After that, I went to a building which had all the snacks you can think of. And I met some new cool friends; they were the friends from my new church.
Dream comments: It was different. Like all of them.
Dream title: Flying
Dream date: March 20
Dreamer name: FL
Dream text: I was flying over the world when I found out the meaning of life.
Dream comments: The meaning of life is to live it...
Dream title: wheels
Dream date: 01/01/2000-10/01/2006
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I have a dream about big wheels all over the place. Theyre like truck wheels and they are all around me.
Dream comments: I had this dream for years
Dream title: Woman turns into puppy turns into little boy
Dream date: 1/17/06
Dreamer name: PGl
Dream text: I was setting out from a family event on a lovely spring day. I was near a stream, and saw this cute puppy, who then turned into a beautiful woman, and alternatively into a young boy. It was like seeing all 3 in one - like one essence; but also that things are not what they seem.
Dream comments: none
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