Dream Work

[thelerner]

Here is a practice that has been on my to do list for quite a while. One that I have very little flair for. I am not good at remembering my dreams. After a few minutes of wakefulness they fade quickly and I'm too groggy to write them down.

 

I have had periods of greater awareness and will power when I've been able to do a dream diary for a few weeks, and it had been fruitful. I certainly have the resources. Books, tapes. I have Winns Dream tapes.

 

must go

 

Michael

[Spectrum]

Simplist things that come to mind:

 

Before you go to sleep bring to mind a dream in which you can recall. Perhaps the most vivid dream you can remember. Play through the dream as you drift off, this will put you a step closer to an active dreamtime.

 

When you awake write down your first waking thoughts, often times these will be blurred with dreams, bringing you a step closer to recall.

 

Waking up slowly over a period of time vs. quickly and rushed makes a difference.

 

IIRC Vitamin b12 increases dream intensity.

 

Spectrum

[freeform]

Great timing, Michael!

 

I've been looking back into lucid dreaming recently... I think the achievement to go for is to be lucid in your dreams - because you can accomplish a lot of deep work on the energetic level...

 

Remembering and interpreting dreams imo is not that usefull - my understanding is that 'normal' dreaming is a way of tying up loose emotional threads that you've started off in the day... I admit that knowing more about your dreams may help you learn how you deal with emotions and what effect they have on you - but there are other ways of doing that quicker...

 

It's important (over time) to move from this type of emotional dreaming to more 'creative' or developmental dreaming (where rather than resolving emotional issues we get clues on how to move forwards on our spiritual path)... Then eventually lucid dreaming becomes a reality and you can affect yourself and your world directly through dream practice...

 

Historically it has been really quite hard to become a lucid dreamer - it took many dacades of of dedicated practice or 'natural' ability. Ofcourse we're lucky today to have access to a lot more information and many more resources that can help us...

 

First thing is we need to resolve our emotional issues of the day before we go to sleep... The healing sounds are very usefull in this regard, and I've found that mentally reviewing the day three times right before sleep helps a lot! I review it once without any judgement - very objectively... then I review it again and notice what I could've done better and where I strayed off my path and lastly I review it noticing what I did well, and where I stayed on my path... (I actually do the healing sounds right after this)...

 

That alone has a great effect on my dreaming - the dreams shift in quality quite noticeably... Sometimes while I'm in bed almost asleep I give myself an intention to resolve some problem or come up with a creative idea or have some specific form of dream (and I always intend to wake up at a certain time (exact to the minute) usually just before my alarm goes off - this is incredibly effective! and a good way to learn how powerfull your subconcious really is.)

 

A few years ago I was training myself to have lucid dreams and in only a couple of weeks I could do it predictably (although I started slacking and lost the skill )...

 

There are a few important things to do to be successfull in this -

 

firstly the 'resolving emotional issues of the day' drill must be practiced every night for a while...

 

secondly you cant go to bed tired! If you fall asleep when drained you simply won't have a lucid dream - it's important to be full of energy and be relaxed with it...

 

And you need to train to be able to have your body asleep whilst your mind is awake... This is achieved by listening to brainwave/binaural recordings (around 4hz is the optimum for this state) and I found the practice of Yoga Nidra (yoga sleep) to be very effective (especially if combined with the binaural technology)... This needs to be trained daily over several weeks so you consistently enter that state easily, then at night you can do it automatically.

 

What you do once you're lucid in your dreams is up to you - I never really did much more than experience cool things that I wanted to experience - flying around at high speeds, visiting beautiful places, talking to animals and cool shamans, having 'romantic' relations with hot chicks etc.. lol I wasn't spiritually mature yet - I now know that I could accomplish a lot of spiritual work in the lucid state... I guess Winn's dreaming tapes might give a better clue as to what can be done... anyone got the tapes and willing to share the info?

[Wayfarer64]

Hey there Lerner I very much like the new psychadelic avatar! Did the shrooms discussion awaken the old hippy in ya?

 

But into the breach of this thread-

I usually can remember my last dream pretty well, and sometimes a few of them. I also have been meaning to write down these recollections of my dreams when I awaken, but often find my mind racing on into the day ahead, (and what I need to do to catch-up with "my life").

 

I find if I go directly to take a shower The hot water and soothing atmosphere allows me to mull over the dream(s) that I can recall. But alas even when I do this they seem to fade quickly if I don't make a real effort to hang onto them. My conscious mind doesn't seem to want to spend time going over what my sub-conscious is processing.

 

I have kept pen/paper by my bed for many years to jot-down "real world" ideas and lines for poems etc... but seldom tried to keep a record of my dreaming - those I did try to keep seemed pretty incoherant and got tossed out anyway! -Tho much of that problem stemmed from really crappy penmanship, leaving a scribble is worse than nothing, it reinforces my waking mind's resentmant of wasting time...

 

So - to do a real study I would need to create a true discipline for myself to make the effort. with maybe a voice activated tape-recorder...

 

Jung is an aid for my interpretations, at least more than Freaud...

 

I was just interupted by three Jahovah's witnesses -they got about three words in edge-wise as I explained several different religions to them! (Mostly Taoism o'course)...And why I have problems believing in the bible...

 

Namaste- which was Another thing I explained to them as they left...

[Spectrum]

Dream-recall is helpful as a type of pre-lucidity training. The old reality test method is a good standby where you check if your dreaming on a regular interval. In my experieneces bi-naural isn't needed, although is a helpful cheater. Hemispheric syncro exercises are helpful and plentiful, and usually engage you in the modulation that happens between wake and sleep. Practicing early morning after real "sleep" has already happened and it's more like a nap seems easiet. Helpful Hint - 'let go of' and 'go with' any feelings of falling and/or vibratory states.

 

Spectrum

[Uncle Fester]

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Edited September 20, 2021 by darebak

[thelerner]

Funny you should mention biaural sounds. I have gotten into Monroe's hemisync series. For a few days I would wake up early, put on the head phones, listen to the Focus 10 series and end having a lucid dream.

 

It was great but for some reason I haven't done it lately, maybe I haven't been doing it consciously and with intent.

 

As far as step 1, writing down your dreams. I decided if I want to do it seriously this will help. An author decided to wake up every day at 5 a.m. He found he couldn't. Even with resolve, in the morning he'd fall back asleep or decide to do it tomorrow.

 

So he practiced. In the evening he'd go to bed. Spend a few minutes there. Then pretend to wake up, walk to the bathroom and pretend brush his teeth. He did this several times night, for several days. Like a Pavlovian dog, he trained himself, going through the morning grogginess and any question of will power.

 

Maybe writing down dream should be like that. A few pretend sessions for a few nights. Lots of positive, 'I'm up here's my dream journal, I remember my dreams, Now I write'. Practice a few times an evening.

 

So what the level of practice here? Who remembers there dreams? Who programs there dreams? Who is lucid and how regularly? Who goes beyond lucidity into alternate dimensions?

 

thanks

 

Michael

[Smile]

Michael, the more you meditate the more you will have control over your dreams. Wake up early in the morning-4-5 am- meditate for an hour and then go back to sleep. You will have the craziest dreams that you will remember after you wake up.

[thelerner]

Good advice.

 

Michael

[DentyDao]

Juan Li teaches an interesting Dream practice. This was ripped off other instructors in the HT and modified to be less effective in my opinion.

Edited November 5, 2006 by seandenty

[Christoph]

I have had success with being able to consistantly enter the vibrational state while listeing to binaural beats.

The closest I have come to lucid dreaming was a couple of weeks ago when the power went out so I got up but it was 4:30 so I went to sleep on the couch and then started dreaming I was waking up on a paralell couch....pretty cool.

 

The book I have says naps and/or early morning will be your best bet.

[Ian]

Sorry to be such a blatant old misery-guts, but I thought I should throw in the opinion that dreams are to sleep what thought is to waking, i.e. the uncontrolled rambling of the mind and provider of all misery.

 

Just pushing you to consider exactly what you're encouraging and why.

 

I can't remember exactly what Ron Jeremy used to say about dream practice, but it was one area where I didn't entirely disagree with him. I got the impression, from him, and from what Michael Winn used to say, that dream practice is difficult and that you really need to have mastered fusion or something equivalent before you're going to be able to do it right.

 

Also remember a long article by Liu Ming about it and how it was more about blurring the boundaries between sleep and waking, and other dualities, than about dreams as such.

 

Anyway, blah blah. Ignore me, have fun.....

[Spectrum]

"success with being able to consistantly enter the vibrational state"

 

"and how it was more about blurring the boundaries between sleep and waking, and other dualities, than about dreams as such."

 

I agree that the content is almost secondary while understanding the transitional states between mindsets is of primary importance to meditators. I look at drifting off as yet another chance to get it, and forget it. I think the vibrational state mentioned is one window most meditators are looking to turn into a patio. Sung.

[Yoda]

I remember one of Ron Jeremy's tenets of dream practice is strong intent.

 

When I've kept a dream journal, that naturally helped me to remember and control my dreams.

 

Now that I want to be a writer, I'm making it a habit to write before going to bed some thoughts, nice things about the day, a poem, etc. Then when I wake up, it's my goal to write a poem about any dreams that I may have had. I want to create a Saga-type poem for my adventures in the middle world with me as the megastud modern Viking conqueror of my half acre kingdom, etc. I don't think I'll be allowed the appropriate funeral pyre and sacrificial maidens at my death, but aside from obvious concessions to modernity, I'll try to stay as close to saga form as possible... he was burned in a cardboard box at the local mortuary, the one with really shitty architecture, but they say that he shook his fist as a sign of undying resolve... Actually, that's why I'll saga-ificate my middle world experience--it's more fun!!

 

-Yoda

[mYTHmAKER]

Since I started telling myself before I go to sleep that I will remember my dreams

I remember more dreams than I used to.

I also say if any fear comes up in a dream I will face that fear in the dream

and if any fear comes up in the waking state I will face the fear.

I do the same for obstacles.

I ask to have the solutions to questions or designs when I wake up.

Edited November 5, 2006 by mYTHmAKER

[MASTERforge]

I regularly have lucid dreams. For me its like another world to exist in, with less boundries free to explore my consciousness, will and desire. I used to have regular dreams when I was younger of flying. I remember this morning I was dreaming of snowboarding. I have never snowboarded but have had this dream several times. I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that.

 

My most memorable one was where my consciousness woke before my body. There was no dreaming, just my mind awake without its body. It wasn't a dream, it was absolutely terrifying because I couldnt feel my body. I could see only darkness but worst of all I couldnt feel myself breathing, I thought I was dead. I dont know how long it was for but this experience has stayed with me ever since.

 

I would like to explore lucid dreaming more. I have a lot of commitments for tai chi and meditation so I dont know if i need more things to work on. It would be great if I could be lucid during my dreams to do energy work

 

Its an interesting topic that can expand to astral projection, other realms and all sorts of crazy stuff. The thing that concerns me is that it may become that we prefer these other realms than the one we exist in here. I understand this can be a problem for meditators too.

 

Hand forged swords

 

www.masterforge.co.uk

[Treena]

When I was a teenager I spent a lot of time training myself to dream recall and to lucid dream. I discovered that focus and intent are the biggies for success for me.

 

For dreams, becoming aware and alert as you wake and *before* you come up through all the dream layers can help you hook a memorable aspect of as many dreams as you are able to 'snag/tag' this way. That memorable aspect can then help you recall the dream fully when you're awake. And like someone said, lots of dreams are just emotional workings that really mean nothing much...except for the training you get from being able to retrieve them.

 

Lucid dreaming is another thing altogether. I think I really managed to get into it when I used the Castenada trick of viewing your hands in a dream. Hard as hell, that. You not only have to become lucid in dreamtime and remember you gave yourself a task, you have to try to view your hands. Slippery little suckers! Stop morphing!

 

But interestingly, I found lucid dreaming can be, well, tiring. I finally stopped doing it when I realized I really like to *sleep* at night!

 

However, that kind of training is never undone. It allows deep penetration into dreamtime where things other than dreaming go on. Not that I can ever recall much of it. Seems like it's not meant to be brought into consciousness. So I don't try very hard. Just content knowing some part of me is accessing something/place/spirit beyond what my puny human self can comprehend.

 

And it allows me to get into some very deep meditative states. Tres cool. Hmm...now why don't I do more of that?