Intent

(From the May 22, 2010 The Erratic Oneironaut, the Mortal Mist community newsletter.)

I recently joined up with a couple other dreamers in a sort of three-way cooperative effort to share goals and results on a daily basis.  We’re using PM and chat and trying to help one another stay on track by reporting our goals and results to one another for a while.

During the conversation leading up to this arrangement, we were discussing the basics – those things absolutely necessary if we hope to enjoy the amazing experience of lucid dreaming.  We’ve all seen that short list what seems like a million times; you must be able to recall some of your dreams, you need a technique or two to work on, and you need to be able to stabilize and remain in the dream once you are lucid.

Then the rather abstract subject of intent came up.  Intent is more than just knowing why we want to experience a lucid dream – it is acknowledging that desire and committing ourselves to the goal.

If you think about it, just about every worthwhile achievement begins with intent; from learning to play musical instruments to successful relationships to completing college degrees and landing jobs to building lucid dreaming communities.  It is the initial setting of intent that really starts us on the journey to realizing our dreams.

Like any other art or discipline, Lucid Dreaming requires commitment, dedication and effort to achieve and master.  Before commitment, dedication and effort, however, comes intent.  We need to want it badly enough to set our intent.

Intent is probably the most fundamental requirement for successful lucid dreaming – the intent to stick with it long enough to achieve the goal, and each and every night the intent to achieve lucidity and then remember it.

Flatland – The Sequel

A metaphorically laced  sequel to Flatland, by Edwin Abbott.

Written by J.M.K. and S.E.D.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_dimension

After many years of reflection, A-square began to again consider the broader implications of the world around him. His initial set of analogies were well received, and the topic of many stoned conversations at the creek with his buddy B-square. Decades had past since his initial exposure to these concepts. Maybe it was time to dig back in.

One day, A-square was reflecting on his younger, more exploratory days where he sometimes visited rabbit holes. Now, trips to the rabbit hole aren’t always what they sound like. In fact, A-square had his first visits to the rabbit hole at roughly 7 and then 13 years of age. There are many kinds of rabbit holes. They are all around us. Throw a rock in a random direction and you will probably hit one. Anyway … he had heard about a new way to get very deep in the rabbit hole. There was something very compelling, very powerful about this story. A-square somehow knew he had to try. So he did. He went very, very, very deep down the rabbit hole. What he found was not what he expected. In fact, it was beyond explanation. But he knew there was something important in relation to this experience. He felt compelled to get his hands around it.

At around this time, A-square rekindled his interest in lucid dreaming. Again, he somehow knew that this experience was very, very important. On a subconscious level, he knew he had to master the experience. He also began to realize that there was a relationship between the rabbit hole, and the lucid dream space. He started having more and more lucid dreams. It was getting easy. He also started to experience other strange events, such as the ability to predict things in the future. Things he otherwise had no linear space time connection to. But of course, A-square being well versed in multi-dimensional theory, was not intimidated by this new found ability. Rather, he decided to better understand it.

A-square began reading. A lot. He read on Buddhism. He read various treatments on lucid dreaming by authors trained in Western psychology. He read on Quantum physics. He read on PSI phenomenon. He continued to go down the rabbit hole.

One day, it dawned on him that if there were in fact all of these missing dimensions that Ph.D. physicist types were predicting, that perhaps the dreamspace was a projection into some of those dimensions. The lucid dream world seemed to be a macroscopic realization of the mind/matter interactions that quantum physics clearly demonstrates. This was a provocative insight, but one that was pretty damn hard to prove.

Along the way, A-square stumbled upon a very special way to visit the rabbit hole. He vowed never to elaborate on the precise method. “The world is not ready for certain things” he said to himself. He never goes back on his word. Now be careful here. Not a special rabbit hole, but a special way to visit it. This new way put a completely different perspective on the Buddhist term “clear light”.

It dawned on A-square, that perhaps the problem we have here, is none of these experts in their respective fields are listening to each other. And for heavens sakes, no one is listening to the Shamans. The Psych guys have their view, the Buddhist have theirs, the scientist believe something else, and the Shamans are caught up in all together different stuff. Maybe, just maybe, what is required here is a bridging of concepts. Someone who can walk the fine line between these worlds, and cherry pick the relevant portions of each.

At around this time, A-square had a powerful compulsion, based on a journey to the rabbit hole. A compulsion to explore a new method of lucid dream induction. Before long, he was having good success, and others were able to coorborate it, for the most part.

He also had a very powerful visionary experience. Well, several really. In one, it was clear that the brain holds onto concurrent stories, any one of which can manifest at any point in time. In another, it was clear that some of these “missing” dimensions intersect each other, with only subtle points of overlap.

Now, A-square was always a graphical thinker. With that said, two pictures developed in his mind.

In one picture, he was in his purely 2-D world. Another 2-D world intersected his own, at a perfect right angle, making it completely orthogonal to his own. He realized, that this orthogonal space was at times an exact replica of his real space. His journeys into this orthogonal space were preceded by vibrations, that seemed to realign his awareness into this perpendicular world. If this dream world was sufficiently identical to his real world, it turns out that objects in the dream world were linked hyperdimensionally to his real world.

In another picture, he pondered the multi-verse theory, and a tree model of wavefunction collapse. He postulated that branches (karmic threads) very close to his real branch, maintained certain synergies with his real space. He realized that branches which had long deviated from his present branch, were nonsensical, and contained otherwise crazy and unthinkable weirdness. So even when lucid, a journey to a far branch, did not maintain sufficient hyperdimensional closeness, from a vector based Euclidean distance perspective, and hence was not of interest, you know, other than having lucid sex fantasies and so forth. He imagined a small wedge, which encompassed his real branch and some of its temporally recent neighbors. He claimed that anything within the wedge constituted an out of body experience. Anything outside the wedge was a plain old lucid dream.

A-square developed a PSI experiment that leveraged the framework he had theorized. He got very good results, at least from a statistical perspective. He learned new rules, and built new insights. One such insight was that the hyperdimensional links are only propped up during transitions from one space to the next. If a transition to a third space occurs, spaces 2 and 3 are likely to be hyperdimensionally linked, not 1 and 3.

One day, as he was trying to strengthen his crazy grand unifying theory, it dawned on him that nature is a bi-directional beast. You know … action/reaction, conservation of energy, push/pull, karma etc …  If I have this model that suggests a hyperdimensional linkage between these orthogonal spaces, and if info can flow from the real world to the dream world, then it has to be able to flow the other way – he postulated.

But how would I do this? What rules would apply? How do I exploit these hyperdimensional linkages in the other direction? Well, experts in string and M theory postulate that a force in an alternate dimension would potentially impact his space as a change in one of the fundamental forces of gravity, weak/strong nuclear forces or electromagnetism. A-square took his first swipe at this problem, in the most obvious possible way.

A-square, in trying to pull together this larger story, pulled up his e-mail one day. Amazon had sent him a suggested piece of reading, based on some of his prior purchases. “Hmmm, this looks like an interesting book” he said. He ordered it.

A-square read this book. Then read it again, noting certain key passages. He then re-read the passages of interest. It dawned on A-square, that this book proposes certain concepts that seem to complete his long standing puzzle. “I’ve got it” declared A-square. So that is what Buddhist talk about when they discuss the true nature of the human mind. BUT … this was all from a more scientific perspective. This is why it resonated with A-squares world.

Knowing full well that creativity is a short term phenomenon, A-square went to work like a busy little bee. After all, look at history. A-squares favorite band put out the 6 most brilliant albums in their genre in 5 years, then kinda fizzled out, less the occasional great album once a decade. Most artists tend to fizzle. They get locked into a very narrow view, and regurgitate the same crap over and over again. An unfortunate consequence of human nature. A-square wrote down the following notes, insights and conjectures in an attempt to capture where he was in his research:

- He developed an “internalized” model of karmic threads and wavefunction collapse. This model suggests that the brain holds onto state information at specific points in time. Then when spawning a dream based on an existing thread, the brain attempts to extrapolate where the story would be (it acts like a “quantum computer”). However this ability to extrapolate from old state information is quite flawed, especially if much time has passed.
- The dreamspace is a projection into some of the missing dimensions predicted by physics.
- Certain dreams remain well linked hyperdimensionally to his real world, others do not.
- Info can flow in a bi-directional sense between hyperdimensionally linked points.
- The brain is not only a filter, it’s a reflector. After all, it takes energy to prop up a multi-dimensional projection.
- The zero point energy field is the likely source of the energy that the brain knows how to harness.
- Our reason for dreaming is to project or otherwise create a world to experience the unknown, a fundamental need that traces back to our reason for being here in the first place.
- Karma manifests in more ways than the obvious ones. There is such a thing as conservation of experience.
- If we travel far from our reality while in the rabbit hole, there is no need to travel far while dreaming. This will help us to visit our dreamspace such that it remains well linked to our real world.
- It became obvious to A-square what receptor system in the brain was most responsible for PSI.
- It became a reasonable conjecture, that the brain can be somewhat rewired.
- A-square’s “externalized” model of karmic threads and wavefunction collapse was more in line with the model proposed by fans of the multi-verse theory. A-square firmly believed that a forking and permanent change in quantum threads was indeed possible, but only via a NDE. The NDE itself was a bit of an illusion. In fact, the being continued along one quantum thread and was extinguished along the thread that deviated at the point of death. A-square’s historical knowledge of the correlation between PSI and NDE’s was deemed “very interesting”.

- Perhaps most importantly, our world is propped up by the collective energy of the 100′s of millions of conscious humans on the planet. This effect is so profound, that we view our world as a stable, unchangeable “real” world. The dream world, especially when out of body, left A-square on a quantum thread in which he was probably the only sentient being from his 2-D world. As such, he did not have to compete with or otherwise challenge the consciousness of other beings. This he claimed was why this world functioned as a more “macroscopic” realization of the mind/matter interactions predicted by quantum theory. Of course it was theoretically possible for another being from his 2-D world to meet him here, giving some small credibility to the idea of dream sharing.

“This last point was an important one”, declared A-square. After all, the Buddhist practitioners of Sleep and Dream Yoga insist that the dream world and real world are equivalent. Insubstantial projections of the mind. A conclusion that has been developed over thousands of years of practice and reflection. A recent trip to the rabbit hole created a visual that told A-square the same thing, but in a pictoral sense. Of course there was quantum physics too. This notion of wavefunction collapse and all. How hard would it be to fight the reality and wavefunction influence of every other sentient being on the planet. Yes, this was a heuristic arguement, but it was based on science. A-square liked science, for the most part. A-square was a firm believer that proof of anything usually comes from a multi-tiered perspective. After all, it’s hard to get a ladder to stand up on its own, but a tripod does not have this limitation.

The only thing A-square continued to struggle with, was the actual way to interact with his dreamspace, such that he could reliably send info back into his real world. Ironically, it turned out to be some writing from a Pysch guy that gave him an idea. Now I say ironic, since A-square had long gravitated toward mathematical, scientific and visionary insights to drive his work.

A-square was able to prove to himself, with about 95% certainty, that he could do what he set out to do. He also realized that his discovery appeared to be the first measurable example of telekinesis in history, even if it was extraordinarily indirect. But hell, if telekinesis was as simple as staring at a salt shaker and pulling it across the table, someone would have figured that one out a long time ago. A-square considered the other common areas of PSI phenomenon. Clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition are relatively easier to demonstrate, but they all suffer from the fundamental problems of human subjectivity and the limitations of statistical inference. After all, statistical inference can only imply … it cannot prove. But telekinesis, that’s a whole different issue. It’s measurable in a truely objective sense.

Now, A-square is a pretty decent all around guy, but he does have this little personality flaw with occasional cockiness. He considered his options. He also realized, that many would consider him to be a lunatic, a liar, or at best a misguided eccentric.

A-square reflected on a recent insight. It goes something like this:

- if 10,000 people can do what you do, you have a problem.
- if 100,000 people can do what you do, you’re screwed.
- if you are the only person on the planet Earth who can do what you do, and no one can say with certainty how you do it … you’ve got something.

A-square peered into the history books. He reviewed stories about crazy people. People who claimed the world was round, or that we were not the center of the universe. Other lunatics who predicted that we would send a man to the moon, or have devices in our houses that were the size of a large book and could do millions of computations per second.

A-square thought long and hard about this, and said “fuck it”. Who cares if most are not going to believe at first. 25 years from now, what I’ve found will seem as basic and common as the phonograph. So A-square wrote another chapter, a sequel if you like, and started sharing some weird little video clips. He made plans to tighten up his dream performance, and convince the world he had found something.

Now A-square is not without a reasonable big picture view of the world, and on occasion becomes a little philosophical. He realizes what he seems to have pulled together, was done so not by being brilliant. Not by being an expert in any one field, and not by focusing on a strictly Western or Eastern view. He did it by pulling together bits and pieces, little jewels if you like, of insight and motivation. He opened his mind to the possibility of a purpose for being here, that far exceeds any mundane purpose that he had previously considered. He hoped that in due time, there is perhaps a small lesson to be learned here. A-square felt momentarily humbled.

Finally, A-square reflected on his senior year quote from 24 years ago:

“We were born to go as far as we can fly, turn electric dreams into reality”

a quote which has four blatant predications of what his future would hold! So, did A-square even come up with this stuff by himself? Maybe someone else figured it all out, and A-square simply developed a method to send this info backwards in time. Who knows? After all, it was Einstein who was so completely convinced that space and time are non-linear.

But that is the paradox we are forced to deal with. We will never know.

Conquering your Nightmares

When I was very young, I was afraid of a lot of things. I lived in a crime-ridden area, just on the edge of a forest of dangerous animals. Add that to the superstitions of the local people and the care of an over cautious mother and you get to be afraid of a lot of things. It was not uncommon for me to step out the door and have my foot land right next to a poisonous snake. We’d check our shoes in the morning for snakes, spiders, or angry reptiles. The appearance of peeping toms or men with firearms were uncommon, but they still happened. The area’s strong belief in spirits, ghosts, and even demons had seeped into my mind. Needless to say, I was perpetually scared.

To follow suit, my dreams were dangerous too. Giant beast would commonly make appearances to attack me. I’d be paralyzed and swallowed by a snake. Extraterrestrials would chase me down. Big dogs would use me as a chew toy. I got rid of these nightmares the hard way – waiting it out. I had been lucid dreaming on occasion, but I still didn’t know the name for it, nor the uses. Luckily, the nightmares faded as I realized that I didn’t have as much to fear as I though. But still, when I found out people had been using lucid dreaming to battle nightmares, I was a little pissed. I had suffered for ages when I really did not have to. It is too late for me (besides the occasional stress-caused night terror) but if you suffer from nightmares, or have friends that do, I suggest lucid dreaming as an answer.

In premise, people use lucid dreaming to face their fears. Turn a nightmare into a lucid dream, and you’re in control. Turn the tables on a common monster, and you’ll be terrorizing your nightmares. This might just give you the comfort and confidence to rid yourself of your personal demons and start enjoying your sleep.

Awareness

Some of the intellectual skills that people work to develop—concentration, single-minded determination, unwavering focus–can be counter to the skills needed to become lucid while dreaming.   Similarly, in emotional situations we may have a narrowed point of view which limits what comes into our consciousness.  In dreams, this inward gaze that we are often in the habit of leads us to ignore the many clues that we are usually surrounded by which could potentially let us know that we are dreaming. We get in the habit while awake of trying not to be distracted, but if unaware of  the larger environment for too often or for too long, we could miss something very important and relevant.

Under some circumstances, being able to focus and block out distracting or potentially confusing peripheral information is helpful.  However, if the blinders of concentration are on too tightly or for too long, both when awake or while dreaming, we are going to miss out on clues that could lead to a revelation.  Too narrow a field of vision may cause you to miss out on something much more important that is happening all around you until it is too late.  It’s good to pause occasionally, look around, expand your awareness, and ask yourself, “Am I seeing the big picture right now?”

Find Your Own

There are hundreds of lucid dreaming techniques out there, and many have trouble choosing which one to start out with. Well, really, the only one who can solve that is you.

For me, the best combination has been checking to see if I am dreaming many times during the day – this is called reality checking – and a healthy amount of sleep. However, I know many people who do this and still have no results.

Those same people might go out and try different techniques. They could be successful on their first try, or it could take months of no results. But eventually, they will find what works best for them. I know many dreamers who lost hope after only a few tries. I believe that if they had stuck to it, they would have been successful. They just needed to find their own personal method.

Mortal Mist has many resources on techniques. If you need more, there are several listed elsewhere online. Take each one with a grain of salt, though. Some of them out there may be an over-complication of an already developed method. Others can be the user’s own misinterpretation of what things really are. Look for comments, if there is something wrong with it, someone has probably pointed it out. And it can’t hurt to have a friend that is knowledgeable or well-versed in techniques.

I believe that every technique merits a decent attempt, an honest try. If you don’t succeed, record the results. Maybe you remember something. Maybe you had a weird feeling. Whatever it is, keep notes. If you give up on one technique and start another, you can always come back. Notes are wonderful for dreamers.

And keep at it. Losing hope is the pitfall of every beginning dreamer.

A brief introduction to LD4all.

LD4all is a large multinational lucid dreaming community with a active user base and a large number of artists. Back in the early days of the modern internet, during the height of the BBS systems and before Google was anything other than a project for college, pasQuale had started up a small website as her graduation project for the Utrecht School of the Arts. The website was named “Through the Mirror – Beyond Dreaming”, and was aimed towards providing an interesting guide to lucid dreamers that wasn’t completely text based (a norm for things back then), and all artwork that appeared on the site was based on things she had seen in her dreams.

Today, LD4all is still going strong as a community, catering to people in four different languages on all parts of the site and having a knowledge base full of articles to help dreamers of all experiences. The strength of the community rests firmly on the friendlyness or both members and staff, who are always willing to help out any dreamer in need of advice. LD4all is one of the few communities able to boast the fact that they’ve created numerous variations on the famous lucid dreaming methods as well as methods all their own, and the members have gone to create other projects, including multiple lucid dreaming programs and even one of the most functional dedicated dream journaling websites around.

If you have a question, it is almost a guarentee that it has already been answered in the multiple year long conversations on almost every topic about dreaming or in the Knowledge Base forum, where all the knowledge gleamed from said conversations are placed by the scribes. In the nearly fourteen years since its creation, LD4all has always strived to live up to its namesake, bringing lucidity to everyone, and for a large part succeeded.

LD4all Guide to lucid dreaming
The LD4all Community