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Witch StuffCoven of Cythrawl
POSTINGS
(Number 452)
More on Lucid Dreaming
Since the last posting on Lucid Dreaming, I have
had lot's of email
asking so many questions about what exactly lucid dreaming is, and a
little more on how to do it. Actually, it's a hard subject to
discuss as so many perspectives are illusive and more about personal
perception and manipulation, besides the fact that I am really no
expert and can only point in the general direction.
That means that it is all up to the practitioner to practice and
experiment, as is usual. A wonderful gentleman from the US, Erin J.
Wamsley tried very hard to lay out a blue print in a great little
book in explaining lucid dreaming and did a very good job of it, but
he still had to revert to "personal experiences" to sort of
"guide
the way" if you will.
Therefore, I'll attempt to the best of my ability to summarize some
of his super ideas and programme of all the relevant concepts - all
the way from A to Z and see if that helps answer some of these
questions.
This will be a long posting I'm going to guess, as I don't know where
to start, so I guess it will have to be at the beginning and wade all
the way through, or until my fingers drop off. I'll throw in a
little rhetoric prose first though to set the mood.
"Once we are Conscious, suddenly we can see where we are - we are
able to
see our seeing, hear our hearing, touch our touching, and feel our
feeling.
With consciousness we can be where we are. Consciousness is the
doorway
through which we enter the dreamscape."
- Charles McPhee
I believe that all of us spend at least one third of our lives
sleeping, which equates to, the average person who spends 8 hours a
day sleeping, and lives an average life of about 75 years, then he or
she has slept for 25 years of his or her life away! What a thought
isn't it? Then we better make some quality time during those 25
years eh?
And of course we all dream. We all dream every single night. Our
bodies shut down, and free of physical distractions, our minds take a
journey into dreamworld. You may think of a sleeping person as being
docile, but actually it is far from it; a sleeper's brain waves
during dream sleep (REM) are most times as active as those during
waking life.
Our eyes dart about beneath the lids, looking around at the
landscapes of our mind's own creation through which we wander. Every
night we enter a vast environment of the mind, filled with limitless
possibilities. Unfortunately, not all of us can even remember a
little of this experience, and few of us are even aware of what we
are experiencing while we are actually "there", wherever that is.
What if, during this supposed "unconscious" state, we were aware of
the fact that we were dreaming? What if we could explore our own
minds at will during this state, taking advantage of our own,
personal, 'virtual reality'? Quite an interesting concept, is it
not? Well then, lucid dreaming is a way for us to be aware of the
extraordinary experience we are having during a dream.
Dr. Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. defines lucidity: "While the dream is
happening you are fully aware of the fact that you are dreaming, that
the world around you is a creation of your mind, and that you are
independent from it."
To remain dreaming upon becoming lucid, you'll need to remain calm,
and focus on the dream itself. As soon as you believe that you are
becoming lucid, it is very important to remind yourself to stay
calm. If you want to begin controlling your dream, don't become too
aggressive in it, or too excited for that matter, because you'll wake
yourself up. If you do start to wake, I described the "spinning"
method to try in the last posting on lucid dreams.
Look around within your dream and attempt to see what is around you,
and take your time exploring the dream world around you. Many times
it may be as similar and as real as the "so-caleed real workd of
daily living", with some strange changes that seem very normal in
your dream state and just allow these images to change as they want;
it might be significant.
Then try to very gently and calmly change aspects of your dream
yourself. That usually takes one to try and think about what you
want to change and then try to picture it actually changing. If you
cannot accomplish this at first, just try changing something else
then, or revert to simply going along with the dream once again and
noting what happens and try to control your own actions within these
magickal changes instead.
Therefore, instead of changing the dream, per se; you attempt to
control your own behaviour. I have read that this kind of dream
control is most beneficial during nightmares. So, rather than
attempting to change the dream, you merely change your own attitude.
Then by realizing it is just a dream and that you cannot be "really"
hurt, you can calm your fear, which is the worst part and
manifestation of any nightmare and is what invariably wakes us up.
Therefore, changing your attitude in such a manner (within a lucid
dream) usually transforms the nightmare into something more peaceful
as well.
Even experienced people with high-level lucidity, it may not be
possible to exert so much control over their dreams. Although
experience does play a part in how well you can control your dreams,
your own belief and confidence is key, as in anything magickal !
If you lack confidence in your dreams, you may fail at controlling
them; if you believe in a dream that you cannot do something, it is
very likely that you won't be able to. The whole crux of magickal
working, never mind lucid dreaming is to always "believe" that it
is "going to work", knowing that any doubt whatsoever invariably
guides the subconsciousness into following that `doubt'.
People have been having lucid dreams throughout history, but they
have only lately been proven and thus come to more scientific
scrutiny.
But why do this at all? What possible importance and relevance does
lucid dreaming have in this modern day and age? This alas is
where "experience" comes in and for those that have experienced it,
they all know that it is an exciting and monumental event. If any of
you have not tried as yet, perhaps you should try and see for
yourself, experience it for yourself. And the tools you need to do so
are right in your hands and in your own mind at this very moment. All
you need to do is want to use them.
"A moment ago I thought I knew what was going on. I thought I knew
what my world was and now I realize that everything I thought about
it was wrong."- Dr. Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D.
I guess then that you might want a little help in how exactly do we
do this. I have outlined a schedule and training package of sorts,
which will take you step by step into this rather uncanny practice
and I believe for the most part will work on anyone, who has the
belief and fortitude to actually do it (as laid out) and not simply
read about it.
Let's start with the Prerequisites
Before you begin any of the actual exercises there are a few
conditions that you should meet: you need to begin a dream journal,
to learn about your sleep cycles, and to have the right attitude
about the task you are undertaking.
Dream Journal
The first and most important thing you can do to improve your dream
recall is to keep a dream journal. You should write down everything
you remember from your dreams each night. This can sometimes be a
time-consuming process, but don't scrimp on this at all and certainly
don't put the actual writing of the dream off until later in the
day.
So then, we must presume that we must keep our journal right next to
our bed so we can access it as soon as we awaken from a dream. This
might be hard on one's sleeping partner by the way if you write it in
the middle of the night and hope that they will understand the
experiment. Perhaps you can save it for morning? You won't remember
all your dreams, but perhaps the last one, or a significant one
during the night.
If you are in a hurry in the mornings, you could take notes
concerning your dreams, paying special attention to details such as
feelings and colours, and then go back and write out the entire dream
at a later time (do this at night when you come home, or take your
journal to school or work). It is crucial, however, to get something
concerning your dream down on paper as soon as you wake up. You may
think that you will remember your dream, but by midday it could
become just a foggy recollection.
It is a time commitment to write down your dreams, but if you don't
do it, you will have nothing to work with for the later exercises.
Make dream recording a part of your daily routine, and dreaming will
come into your hands a thousand times more easily. You never need to
show your journal to anyone else if you don't want to. It is a
private thing, like a diary.
Your journal can take any form you wish; it need not be fancy. You
could buy a special journal at a bookstore, but a cheap composition
notebook will serve the purpose just as well. You should write down
the date and, if possible, the time of each dream you record for
later reference. Some people (fanatics as far as I'm concerned) even
like to title their dreams and include them in a table of contents.
You may want to leave a sizable margin on the side of your
description to add notes that occur to you later. If you are
artistically inclined, or learn visually, it may be beneficial to you
to include sketches of dream places, characters, or objects. (I have
certainly done this as it was easier to draw it than describe it and
later, I found that a simple sketch brought back memories quicker and
easier than without).
Tape recorders are an effective alternative method of dream
recording. You can record your voice describing your dream when you
wake up in the morning, and transcribe it to paper, or you may choose
to keep a library of all your dreams on tape. (Hey, just for those
who are thinking of the tape recorder I've tried and when I woke up
I duly switched on the recorder and started to talk into it.
I know as I become more awake, the dream was getting harder to
describe, as it was starting to not make sense in a way, but I
persevered and in the morning, switched on the recording. Well, I
have no idea what the hell I was talking about at all. It sounded
as if it could've been interesting, but sense? Not a smidgen of
sense whatsoever. Not even a hint of what it was that I languished
and lovingly dreamed, worthy of reciting into the recorder. I just
remember it being impossible to verbalize, at it was all so
surrealistic.
You might think therefore, that a journal would be worse; well
perhaps, especially if it was a surrealistic as that dream I had
(still have & they're wonderful) as it just didn't make any sense
to my waking consciousness, but I know it made perfect sense to my
dreamworld and I knew that I was dreaming and when I awoke I wanted
to record it. In these situations, do the best that you can and if
you write it, just write down what you can and even if it doesn't
make sense, the writing will force you to put something more
comprehensible than half asleep dribble into a recorder perhaps.
Whatever it is, your journal should be something you like and feel
comfortable using. The setup of your journal is a completely personal
choice. There is no right or wrong way to do it; the important thing
is to record as many dreams as possible.
Recording our dreams helps us to pay attention to the dreams we are
able to recall, and establishes a daily routine that molds the idea
of dreaming into our lives. When we perform actions that cause us to
think of dreams during the day, it helps us to "remember to remember"
our dreams at night. You should keep a dream journal for at least a
week or two before trying the induction exercises described later.
The next important step is to Know Your Sleep
In working with your dreams, you are working with your sleeping self,
and so it is important to know just a little bit about what your mind
and body are doing during sleep. This will help you to focus your
efforts during some of the later exercises and give you a general
knowledge of what you are dealing with, physically, as you work on
manipulating your sleep and dreams.
During the night, we go through repeated 90 minute sleep cycles
consisting of four different stages and, of course, dream sleep.
During stage one, the first and lightest stage, we are in the process
of falling asleep. This is going through Alpha state and the
wonderful world of magick and meditation and even OBE. This is but a
brief transition state to other stages though, unless carrying out
controlled meditation or Otherword travels. We actually then
experience hypnagogic imagery as we move into deeper sleep.
Stage two is the onset of what we would consider actual sleep. It
lasts about 10-20 minutes.
Stages three and four are a "deep sleep" lasting about 40-50
minutes. This activity is not found in those suffering from insomnia
or depression though and sometimes explains the lethargy and weight
fluctuations, as muscles and tissue grow and repair during this time.
Following stage four, we progress back to stage two and then enter
dream sleep. Dream sleep is the time in which most of our vivid
dreams occur. This is also called "REM", (or Rapid Eye Movement
sleep). During this time, our eyes are darting around beneath the
lids and looking about at the world we are seeing in the dream.
The length of dream sleep increases with each cycle throughout the
night, which partially accounts for the fact that we often have our
most memorable and vivid dreams when we have had a longer time to
sleep, especially in the mornings.
OK, let's now get onto the most important topic of Attitude
Without the right attitude towards any learning experience, you will
get nothing out of it. If you pay thousands of dollars to sit in a
university class, but don't pay attention, don't respect the teacher,
don't like the class, and don't do the homework, you will never learn
anything. This is also especially true for dreaming. The attitude
that you have means everything to the success of your lucid dreaming,
because it is all in your mind.
First and foremost; it is important that you have at least a mild
curiosity in learning to have lucid dreams. You must `want to do
this', or else you will never have the motivation to commit any
effort to the task. Remember, we are the "do'ers, not the talkers".
Lucid dreaming requires some commitment of time and concentration.
You must want to learn enough that you are willing to put effort into
the learning process. Whatever you believe will happen, probably
will. If you believe that nothing you are reading in this posting
will work, it won't.
If you believe that you won't be able to have a lucid dream, then it
will, in fact, be very difficult for you. You must believe that you
can succeed. This may sound silly, and perhaps it would be if we
were talking about running a marathon, but since what you are trying
to achieve concerns only your own mind, your willpower and belief in
yourself, will have a massive effect upon your success. Don't be too
skeptical. Believe that lucid dreaming is easy, and that anyone can
do it.
You must be willing to devote time to your dream life. This does not
mean giving up all your free time, but simply making a small effort.
You must be willing to take a few minutes out of the day to
concentrate on certain tasks, to record your dreams, and to practice
exercises. I suggest that you take a moment right now and decide
that you want to do this; you believe you can, and you are willing to
commit to it.
Right then! Let's get on to the Preparation Exercises
This next little section will help you to strengthen and develop five
basic skills that are a foundation for learning how to have lucid
dreams, and for being successful in later techniques: discipline,
awareness, willpower, concentration, intention, and memory. It is
key for you to spend some time and effort on these exercises, or else
the later techniques may not help you much at all. You should use
them for at least a week or so before moving on, and continue to
practice them as you learn more techniques. There is, of course, no
set time period for how long an exercise may take to help a person,
so don't be discouraged if your efforts don't pay off right away, or
if certain exercises don't help you at all.
The next most important subject is Discipline
In order to be successful in training yourself towards lucidity, you
must become comfortable with discipline and routine. (This should
sound very familiar to all real occultists and magicians). The most
important element of discipline for a dreamer lies in recording your
dreams, like I said earlier, (don't put it off we're do'ers
right!?!).
You need to develop a routine of recording your dreams every day.
You must discipline yourself into thinking about your dreams when you
awaken, and write them down, no matter what. The moment you begin to
allow yourself to skip days and to be lazy, you begin to lose
valuable material and experience. Recording your dreams on a regular
basis will also teach you the discipline that you will need to be
successful in many other techniques. Begin this daily routine the
very next morning you have decided to follow this course, if possible.
Once you get into the swing of it, recording dreams becomes no
problem at all. The hard part is getting started, so just do it,
(and buy a Nike hat).
Discipline also figures into almost every other technique you will
learn, not just in lucid dreaming, witchcraft, occult, magick, but
life itself. You must have the self-discipline to carry
out `sometimes tedious' activities, and to commit time from your day
to these activities. Discipline is one of the building blocks that
your success will be built on, and although you may not like it at
times, it is very necessary.
OK, let's move onto Awareness
Since the goal of lucid dreaming is to become `aware while dreaming',
developing your skill of awareness about yourself and your dreams
while waking is key to your development of awareness in your dreams.
Remember my last posting, well I'll summarize once again here to
reinforce it all.
Developing awareness of your dreamsigns is a simple activity that
centers around the main ways that you will become lucid in your
dreams. A dreamsign by the way is "a peculiar event or object in a
dream that can be used as an indicator that you are actually
dreaming" (taken from Lynne Levitan, in her book A Thousand and One
Nights of Lucid Dreaming). Or, in essence, a kind of signal to you
in a dream. For example, once again to take Erin J. Wamsley's
ideas, "if a pink elephant walked in the door right now, you might
conclude that you are dreaming," (I'm certainly hoping). This pink
elephant would therefore be considered a dreamsign.
Whilst we are dreaming, however, we don't often recognize our
dreamsigns as being unusual, as they can get very surrealistic, as I
said before and I know from personal experience and you all probably
have had the same experience no doubt. For example, if you were in a
dream right now reading this posting and you saw that pink elephant
come strutting past your computer, you might not think anything of it
and keep on reading this. If we really look into our dreams though
and find the dreamsigns that we have had previously, however, we will
become aware of our typical signs and therefore more easily recognize
them in our next dreams. There are by the way, four main categories
of dreamsigns as developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge:
Action - You, (another dream character), or thing does something
unusual or impossible in waking life.
Context - The place or situation in the dream is `strange' (relative
to normal waking).
Form - You, (another character), or thing changes shape, or is oddly
formed and/or transforms. This may include the presence of unusual
clothing or hair.
Awareness - A peculiar thought, a strong emotion, an unusual
sensation, or altered perceptions.
After you have recorded a dream in your journal, go back and re-read
it. Locate unusual things or occurrences within it that could have
given you a clue that you were dreaming. Then try to place these
signs in one of the four dreamsign categories. A helpful way to
distinguish these is to highlight, underline, or circle each type of
dreamsign in a different color. For example, you might decide to
highlight all action dreamsigns in pink, all context signs in yellow,
form signs in green, and awareness signs in blue. This will help you
to easily see these signs, and their categories, when you look at the
dream later.
OK, to continue; once you have marked all the signs in several
dreams, you should begin to record your dreamsigns in a table. (I
told you this will take dedication). You can easily just draw one in
your dream journal, or in another notebook. Recording these in a
table not only helps develop your awareness of dreamsigns in and of
itself, but will also allow you to determine what type of dreamsign
most often causes you to gain lucidity. Learning about your
dreamsigns will help you with visualization of your dreams in later
techniques.
Right, let me try and summarize on how to determine your most
effective dreamsigns:
Add up the total number of dreamsigns in each category in your
table. Add up the number of times this category was recognized.
Recognized / Total = % effectiveness
The next important point to outline is Willpower (Once again Witches
will have no problem with this, as it's inherent in many workings).
Willpower is the fuel that will make your efforts pay off.
Without `will' to succeed, no technique, no advice, and no knowledge
will ever improve your dreaming, or anything else for that matter.
You must focus your intent and learn to use the power of your mind.
The subject with which we are concerned dreaming - is within your
mind. It is `of your mind' and it is' controlled by your mind'.
Therefore, your own thoughts and `will' have complete control over
your dreams.
The power of suggestion is a dreamer's (and occultist's) ultimate
tool, and is a part of most all lucid dreaming induction techniques.
Other cultures have varied techniques for inducing certain types of
dreams that appear to have no scientific basis for working. Yet
among these people who believe in them, these techniques do actually
work and work well! It is willpower, the power of self-suggestion,
that causes these sometimes bizarre techniques to work for those
who `believe' in them.
As you go to bed, try to relax completely. Then simply tell yourself
that you will have a lucid dream and you will remember it. Repeat
continuously in your head (any similar phrase with the essentially
same meaning will also work). For instance; "I will have a lucid
dream and I will remember it." (Yep, it's that simple).
Keep thinking this and do not let your mind wander to any other
subject. You must have the willpower not to let your mind falter.
Repeat this statement in your mind until you fall asleep,
concentrating not just on the words, but also on their meaning. Above
all, `believe your words'. Believe that you will have a lucid dream
and you will remember it. Belief and believe are always a powerful
words in the vocabulary of a dreamer.
We must now touch on the next very important factor of Concentration
Concentration is also a key element in being able to effectively use
concepts such as autosuggestion. Keeping your mind set on one idea.
Not letting your intentions falter. These are skills that will help
you greatly.
An easy way to practice concentration is to focus on an object. A
candle flame works well, but anything else that you are comfortable
with may also do. As well as improving concentration, this exercise
will also help you with visualization of objects, which is useful in
dream control.
Light a candle, and sit comfortably in front of it. Stare at it and
concentrate on the flame. Allow no other thought than the candle to
enter your mind. When you feel your eyes straining, close them and
sit quietly for a few moments, imagining the flame before you.
You may want to begin doing this for a period of five minutes or so,
adding length each time you practice. Try to work your way up to 15-
20 minutes. Although it is a great effort of concentration, this
should be a relaxing exercise. Make sure you are comfortable, and do
not allow yourself to become too strained.
Now we're getting to the met of it all in Carrying Out Intention
It is not enough to simply intend to do something. In order to
accomplish a task, you have to develop your intention to do
something, and then remember to carry out your intention at an
indefinite point in the future. If you want to have a lucid dream,
you must remember this intent and carry it out while you are
dreaming. Erin J. Wamsley recommends in his book;
Practice carrying out these random acts:
- Write 100 times "I am dreaming"
- Walk around the perimeter of a room 10 times
- Untie and retie your shoes 5 times.
Do this over a span of three days. Start doing just one action on
the first day. On the next day, do this same action plus one other.
On the third day, carry out all three actions. If you forget to do
one or more on any of the three days, start the process over again.
This exercise may seem to be pointless, but Erin J. Wamsley swears
that it will help you to 'remember to remember' that you are dreaming.
Bringing us to the subject of Memory
Remembering your dreams.
Remembering to carry out your intentions.
Remembering that you are dreaming.
These are important things to be able to do in lucid dreaming, and
while not easy, a well-practiced memory adds significantly to a
person's ability to do them.
Prospective Memory Training is a valuable exercise developed by Dr.
Stephen LaBerge. It is designed to be carried out over the span of
one week. Each day, you will have a list of specific "targets",
which are everyday occurrences.
At the beginning of the day, memorize your day's targets. Try not to
look at your other targets until you reach the day that they are
assigned. Your goal is to recognize the target when it occurs and
perform a state test. You perform this test simply by asking
yourself, "Am I dreaming?"
Look around for dreamsigns, think about it, and answer the question
logically. If you remember to ask yourself this question when the
target event occurs, you have made a "hit". If you forget to ask
yourself this question when the target event occurs, it is a "miss".
Keep track of how many targets you hit during the day, and how many
you missed. Continue this exercise until you have improved your
ability to hit these targets.
I always remember Carlos Castaneda writing about Don Juan saying that
one should `remember' to look at one's hand in a dream and that will
be the day you will be able to control your dreams and (perhaps live
in otherworlds). Good books, whether genuine or not, as it is not
relevant here.
Anyway, here are some Daily Targets
SUNDAY:
The next time I see a pet or animal.
The next time I look at my face in the mirror.
The next time I turn on a light.
MONDAY:
The next time I write anything down.
The next time I feel pain.
The next time I hear my name spoken.
TUESDAY:
The next time I see a traffic light.
The next time I laugh.
The next time I hear music.
WEDNESDAY:
The next time I eat a vegetable.
The next time I see a red car.
The next time I turn on a television.
THURSDAY:
The next time I hear a phone ring.
The next time I check the time.
The next time I read something other than this list.
FRIDAY:
The next time I see the stars.
The next time I use a toilet after noon.
The next time I open a closed door.
SATURDAY:
The next time I watch a commercial.
The next time I run.
The next time I unlock something.
I'll now try and touch on and summarize your Nightly Induction, but
let me quote quickly a little snippet from Rollo May, who wrote;
"Most of us today think of our dreams as odd episodes, as foreign as
some
ceremonial dance in Tibet. This results in the cutting off of an
extremely
great and significant portion of the self. We are then no longer
able to
use much of the wisdom and power of the unconscious."
These techniques are actually not long-term commitments, as some of
the previously described activities were. The following techniques
are; instead designed to be used just before you go to sleep, and the
results of these techniques will immediately follow their use.
You can use these at night before you go to bed, or before a nap. In
fact, naps often are one of our most lucidity lucrative sleeping
times. At night, however, the longer you have to sleep, the better.
As you learned before, our dream periods repeat and increase in
length throughout the night, and so the longer you sleep, the
more 'chances' you have at lucidity.
Before trying these techniques, you must prepare your mind and body.
The exercises you have already worked on should have prepared you in
the long term, but now you should relax yourself to prepare for the
task immediately ahead of you the dreaming bit.
To do that, we must start of course with sleep and that can only come
by Relaxation
Relaxing before using these techniques clears your mind of
distractions and allows you to focus on the task at hand. Simple
meditation is a good way to relax yourself before using an induction
technique. You know the usual yogic ways of relaxation, or any
hypnotic induction relaxation technique will do, such as this simple
one;
Find a position in which you can comfortably remain.
Observe your thought process. Simply let your thoughts arise and do
not become involved in the content of your thoughts.
Notice that you can know you have thoughts, but you are not your
thoughts. They are simply a part of the whole. They represent your
feelings, memories, anticipations, or speculations, and they call for
your attention. As each thought passes, either you attend to it or
you do not. While you cannot stop the thoughts themselves, you can
prevent yourself from being snared by each one.
As each thought arises, picture it on a white cloud in the sky and
watch the cloud pass overhead and out of sight as another thought
comes into view on its cloud. Do not try to hold on to the clouds or
retain the thought in your mind. Be aware that the thoughts are just
objects of our observation, to be noticed and let go. Keep noticing
the thoughts and then let them go again and again.
And, of course, once you are really comfortable and at home in pure
awareness, then you can let go of the thought of watching your
thoughts as well. Meditate for 5 to 10 minutes, (or for a period
that is comfortable for you).
There is such a thing as a Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming
It was actually developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D., this is the
technique, which many have found most beneficial to lucidity. It
makes use of autosuggestion and visualization in a combination that
can have amazing results even after the very first time that you use
it.
1. Relax completely and get yourself into a comfortable position in
bed.
2. As practiced in the autosuggestion technique, repeat to yourself
as you fall asleep:
"I will wake up after every dream period and I will remember my dream"
Believe that you will wake up after every dream you have. Many
people, even after the very first time they used this technique, they
did actually wake up immediately after each dream period.
3. When you wake up during the night, immediately rouse yourself and
write down everything you can remember about your dream. Even if you
can barely remember anything, write down how the dream made you feel,
or how you felt when you woke up.
4. Lie down again, and as you drift back to sleep, imagine that you
are back in the dream that you just had. (Or try the spinning
technique I discussed in the lst posting, or even a combination).
Anyway, this time, however, imagine that you saw a dreamsign in your
dream and recognized it. Try to think of a dreamsign that fits with
the dream and falls under your most successful dreamsign category.
As you fall asleep, keep visualizing yourself in your dream,
recognizing your dreamsign, and realizing that you are in a dream.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 every time that you awaken during the night,
even if your dream was already lucid.
I guess I must talk a little about the difference between Lucidity
from Sleep Paralysis
You may or may not experience the phenomenon of sleep paralysis.
During dream sleep, our body actually shuts off our ability for
movement, (I don't want to get into sleep walking here though guys)
and we are temporarily paralyzed (in order that our bodies will not
act out our dreams).
Sometimes, we wake up, arising into the sleepy haze of stage one
sleep, but our bodies are still paralyzed. A person experiencing
sleep paralysis may feel that they are having "difficultly" in waking
up. They are unable to move, and have trouble even in keeping their
eyes open, and focusing on the surroundings of their sleeping
quarters. (this reminds me on how I feel on a bad day - groan).
Well needless to say, this paralysis is an extremely frustrating
state for most people who experience it, but apparently it can be
taken advantage of in two ways:
Since sleep paralysis is a state very close to dream sleep, a person
can slip into a dream in moments when paralyzed, simply by closing
their eyes and relaxing. We are conscious in paralysis, and so can
set our intention to know that we are dreaming and easily keep this
intention through the short transition into our dream.
There is possibly an even better way though to exploit sleep
paralysis in the "two bodies" technique. During paralysis, our
senses are somewhat distorted in a halfway state between dreaming and
waking. We are seeing our actual surroundings, but may feel and hear
things from the dreamworld. It is therefore easy to make a
transition into a lucid dream without even seeming to close our eyes.
This is perhaps the most dramatic technique, because it is apparently
similar to the concept of 'astral projection'. (Someone in the back
waking up there I see interesting is it not?) In this technique,
however, we only dream that we are leaving our bodies (oohhh pooh
they cry).
Once in a state of sleep paralysis, avoid feeling trapped or
frightened. Relax, but do not close your eyes. Imagine that you
have two bodies: a physical body and a dream (astral) body. Your
dream body is light, free, and ghostlike, while your physical body is
cumbersome, heavy, and awkward
Your dream body is currently trapped inside your physical body, but
only because you have not realized that you can free it. Don't try
to move your physical body; instead, concentrate on `floating' your
dream self out of the cumbersome physical body.
Believe that you can do it and that it is very easy. If you succeed
in this effort, you will slip into a dream that you have left your
paralyzed body on your bed, and be fully aware that you are
dreaming. Be careful not to be fooled: it may seem very realistic in
your dream, but you have not actually left your body. Remember to
remember that it is `just a dream'. (sigh
)
I guess I'll now try to move off and summarize what it is Within Your
Dreams
What did Albert Einstein say? Oh, yes, "Imagination is more
important than knowledge." (I guess that was fine for him to say,
but perhaps for a Witch; it is).
Back to the dreaming though. OK, you're in a lucid dream. Now what?
Well, do anything you want. Explore. Learn. You can question and
converse with your dream characters, knowing that they are a creation
of your own subconscious. You can do things you've always wanted to
do. Jump off Mount Everest. Have sex with Marilyn Monroe, or anyone
else you fancy, (no rushing now people, keep to a brisk walk). Find
out about yourself, from yourself. No book can tell you what do.
Before you get to this point of complete freedom, however, (sigh) you
may need help with maintaining a state of lucidity once you have been
able to achieve it. I read that many people are able to achieve
moments where they say in a dream, "Hey, I'm dreaming!", but are
unable to keep this realization for more than a short time,
eventually falling back into the assumption that their surroundings
are `real'.
Others habitually wake up right after the moment that they achieve
lucidity. Several techniques have been developed and used by
thousands, specifically for the purpose of maintaining moments of
lucidity. I'll try and list a few here, so read these ideas, and
keep `em in mind as you go to sleep. For these to be of any help,
you must remember to try them at that crucial moment when you
say, "This is a dream!"
Bringing us to the mystical bit of Crossing the Bridge
You might have moments in your recorded dreams where you can see that
you almost became lucid. Perhaps you recognized a dreamsign but were
unable to make the leap from this recognition to lucidity.
The statement, "I am dreaming." is a monumental and unusual thing to
say when you believe that you are existing in reality. It is
therefore often difficult to convince ourselves that we are, in fact,
in a dream.
However, I see that hard evidence from Erin J. Wamsley, who says it
is easy to find on this subject. When you are in doubt as to whether
or not you are dreaming, look at your watch (hey, we've just
remembered that Don Juan said that too something in it?).
Notice and remember the time. Look away and then look back at your
watch again. If you are dreaming, the time will have changed
significantly, (if you can), or might have been unrealistic in the
first place. There are no constants in the dreamworld as there are
in waking life, so if your watch has advanced 10 hours in a moment's
glance, you will have undeniable evidence that you are dreaming. I
personally can't do that and I find it hard enough )to remember) and
do, in looking at even one hand, but I did do it and I didn't have a
watch on I guess I could've willed it on).
Any way, apparently there is another reliable test, which is to read
a passage from a book. Choose one paragraph from any book you can
pick up, look away from it, and then read it again. If you are
dreaming, the content of this passage will have changed completely.
Again, this test takes advantage of the inconstant nature of a dream
and is undeniable proof of a dreamer's state.
Let me move onto Focusing on Detail and Sensation
Sometimes you may feel that your dream is beginning to fade away, (
because I know if I appear to be concentrating too much this happens
with me). Your surroundings may seem fuzzy, or your sensations
unclear. You may even get the feeling that you are about to wake up,
as I do, still knowing that I am dreaming.
Apparently, in this case, focusing on detail around you can help you
to bring your dream back into focus. Look at something that would
have intricacies in real life, such as a piece of wood. Get a close
view of the grains and interlocking detailed parts of this object.
Once you then look back at your surroundings, they too will appear
more clearly.
Besides vision, you can also focus on the details of other senses.
Notice the sounds around you (birds, motors, wind, the hum of a
television set in the next room) or the feelings you are experiencing
(the pressure on your feet or perhaps your ears from walking, or even
the feel of water on your skin, the taste or smell of something).
Seeing these details of small parts of your dream will help bring the
entire picture back into focus. Of course, you can try spinning
yourself back in and do those things then.
I must even talk about Closing Your Eyes also, besides spinning as it
is also a working solution
If you feel that your dream is going nowhere, that you are losing it,
or if you want to transfer dreams for any other reason, try closing
your eyes. Often, if we close our eyes or go to sleep within a
dream, it brings about a change of scene and plot. (Like changing
channels).
The important factor of Releasing Anxiety is next on our hit list
for "staying in there"
Sometimes, tension and anxiety are brought about when we realize that
we are dreaming. We struggle to keep the state of lucidity. If your
dream starts to fade, relax instead of panicking. Do not struggle to
hold on to a fading dream, but instead try to release your anxiety
and "go with the flow". In this situation, tension is
counterproductive, because it may simply jolt you awake.
OK just for the hell of it, I'll touch on Spinning again, so you
have it all in one place
'Spinning', as I said before in the last posting is a technique that
has been shown to be effective by the Lucidity Institute. When you
are in a dream, and that dream, or your lucidity, begins to fade, try
spinning around. Feeling this unusual and realistic sensation
of 'spinning' our dream bodies helps us to bring clarity back to the
dream. Don't forget folks to remember which way you spun eventually,
even if you started one way did you finish off the same way?
Well, now what? What happens After Your Dreams
Dr. Ann Faraday says quite sagely, "If we listen patiently to our
dreams and the messages they contain . . . they will eventually lead
us to health . . . how much better to take advice from the other half
of yourself than from another person."
So then, that will bring us to Remembering
Letting yourself `remember' your dreams can be a function of the
moment as well as of practice and training. I know that sometimes
when I wake up and try to verbalize the dream, it just refuse to
cooperate, as in anything deep and mystical. However, the experts
all say that when you wake up, lie in bed without moving for a few
moments, trying to remember your dream.
Sometimes, being in the position we were in during our dream can help
to trigger a memory that we might not otherwise reach and I know
that's true because I've realized that myself. (Even if I turn over,
I have switched channels most often than not).
Even if you have moved a little after awakening, try to lie back down
and find the position that you awoke in. Close your eyes. Try to
remember what you were feeling and thinking at the moment that you
woke up. What were you thinking about? What mood did you
immediately awaken into? This information may also trigger a memory
of your dream. Remember: the sooner you concentrate on remembering
the details of your dreams, the more you will be able to find.
To help yourself remember details of a dream, you might want to
visualize the remembered dream in your head. Closing your eyes and
replaying the scenario in your mind may help you to see details and
remember feelings that would otherwise be lost and I feel that is the
best way to start to remember and certainly not rushing for my pad
and "forcing it all out".
No matter how much you recall, however, your dream will be of little
use if you do not record it, once remembered. As you learned
earlier, you should record your dreams as soon as possible, including
every fragmented memory.
Right now I'll be getting into murky terrortory in the next phase
of our operations and that is Interpretation
There's probably a lot of our members who might excel in this, but I
alas am not one of them. It doesn't mean that I can't do it, but I
tend to look through books after perusing it myself, instead of
trusting in my own judgment and when I read the books and it doesn't
gel with my own interpretation, I scoff, (really loudly). I should
really learn to trust in myself more and see if it comes true, or is
actually in motion.
In so many of these books, you will find huge lists of dream symbols
which `supposedly' tell you the exact meaning of your dreams and many
of thse have been copied and perpetuated by plagiarism and so it goes
on. The truth is, however, that no one can interpret "your dreams"
but you. No one else can tell you what your dream means. Each part
of your dream means what it means to you, and nothing else.
There are actually no set rules for interpretation. There are no
books or dictionaries that will show you the real meaning of a dream,
especially yours! We must unlock the meaning to our own dreams.
There are many ways to help ourselves do this. "Word association"
can help us to find out what recurring dream symbols mean to us. We
may want to devote a few pages in the back of our journals to
interpretation, or at the end of each dream itself.
Then I guess it is only to read through your old dreams and find
things or situations that repeat themselves. For example, you might
often dream about climbing stairs. Write down this word (or phrase)
in your journal and look at it. Think about what it makes you think
of and feel. Then write down everything that comes to your mind when
thinking of this thing or situation. Some words that you write down
just might surprise you. Reading over these lists can lead to a
discovery of what these symbols mean to you. I always start by
sitting and meditating on it, or in the morning standing in the Crux
for an hour and concentrating on it and letting it come of its own.
If you are artistically inclined, you might want to draw a picture
about this symbol. Don't just draw a recurring object, though. Be
sure to include your feelings and things that, in your opinion,
relate to this symbol. You could also cut out a picture of your
symbol from a magazine or book. Pasting this into your journal might
also help you in thinking about what it means to you.
Discussion is another activity that can help you in deciphering your
dreams. Whilst no one can dictate the meaning of your dreams to you,
talking about them with Coven brothers and sisters, friends or family
can often be helpful. (this brings in Lateral Thinking, that Edward
DeBono would be prous).
Someone may suggest something to you that you hadn't thought of
before. Like I said, having others share their dream experiences
with you may also open your eyes to new possibilities. Maybe someone
you know also has dreams about climbing stairs. What does it mean to
them? We all learn from each other. Go and climb together perhaps
There are no rules or laws to your dreams. Explore. Have fun.
Sleep tight. Sweet dreams.
B*B
Degree System
within Wicca Working Tools of Wicca
Elements of Witchcraft More
Witch Stuff
Theban
Script
With Thanks
