Dreams and life – lucid and otherwise.
Pete
Peter J. Celano is a grudgingly reforming capitalist, now exploring more existential realms because there isn't much else to do during the global recession. He's been known in various esoteric circles at various times as a writer, composer, musician, engineer, artist, lucid dreamer, web developer, craftsman and polymath.
Homepage: http://mortalmist.com
Posts by Pete
Inception Deception
Aug 2nd
Is the movie, Inception, potentially damaging to lucid dreaming?
(Originally published in The Erratic Oneironaut issue #46, Mortal Mist’s newsletter)
The recent blockbuster motion picture, Inception, has created a second peak of public interest in lucid dreaming this year. (The first was from an interview with James Cameron, talking about the influences leading to Avatar.) Most of Inception takes place in dreams and “dreams within dreams”, with the plot pivoting around the presumed nature and limitations of the dream world.
While I really enjoyed the movie, I came away puzzled by the way the dream world was presented. The director, Christopher Nolan, has talked about how lucid dreaming was a major influence. As a practicing lucid dreamer, however, I saw precious little that reflected what lucid dreamers experience.
(If you have not yet seen Inception and are planning to do so, be warned that the balance of this essay contains general plot spoilers. You may want to come back and finish this after seeing the movie.)
One of the big problems lucid dreamers deal with in sharing their experiences with the uninitiated is stubborn persistence of myths about lucid dreaming. Some of these myths are rooted in ancient beliefs, while others are the result of fear and ignorance. It is difficult to pick the most egregious of the new myths that Inception has imposed on an ignorant populace, so here are a few of the big ones in no particular order:
Five Minutes Sleep Equals One Hour Dreaming
False. Laboratory studies by Stephen LaBerge and others have confirmed that in most cases lucid dreaming consciousness happens in real time. Lucid dreamers sometimes deliberately practice time dilation, but it is a skill that is developed rather than a fixed and immutable relationship. Dreams that seem to span days or weeks are occasionally reported, but they are the rare exception rather than the rule.
Dreams Within Dreams Multiply Dreaming Time
False. Dreams occurring within dreams are not uncommon experiences, and there is no time multiplication factor involved. Lucidity is not easy to attain for most people, so the time spent lucid dreaming is precious. If this multiplication effect was true, the first goal of any lucid dreamer would be to go to sleep again so lucid dreaming time would be vastly increased! Sadly for us lucid dreamers, this is not the case.
Dying In A Dream Makes You Wake
False. I know from personal experience that this is not always so. Death in a dream can lead to many different kinds of experiences, from truly waking to false awakening to experiencing disembodiment. Many lucid dreamers seek death experiences in their dreams just to see what might happen, as the experiences are unpredictable and fascinating.
Dying In A Dream Within A Dream Makes You Fall Into Eternal Limbo
False. THERE IS NO LIMBO. There is no risk of falling into a state that will be perceived as an eternity that will leave you a brain-dead idiot in waking life.
Basing Your Dreams On Real Places Can Result In Confusing Dreams With Reality
False. While dream worlds can seem perfectly solid and convincingly real while in the dream, they are inherently unstable. Lucid Dreamers rarely pre-determine the settings of their dreams, though constructing a dream world is certainly possible for those with experience and skill. In any case, a simple Reality Check (RC) will usually determine whether you are awake or asleep.
Inception has indeed brought new and welcome attention to lucid dreaming, but has brought with it a whole new set of myths to be dispelled. Rather than presenting Lucid Dreaming in all its limitless possibility and bizarre glory, Nolan has twisted and distorted lucid dreaming to create an appropriate setting for his thriller. In the process, he has cast the dream world as a foreboding and dangerous place, when in reality it is a magical world of unlimited possibility, where the only restrictions come from what you believe and can imagine.
Intent
Jun 15th
(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.
The Tonocololocai – A Cautionary Tale
May 5th
The Tonocololocai – A Cautionary Tale
by Pete Celano
Some time ago, a species of small, furry creature vaguely resembling a fluffy cockroach evolved in isolation on a tiny island near Tuvalu. In spite of their ridiculous countenance and facial features that looked to be in a state of perpetual dumbfounded astonishment, they had no natural predators other than humans, who at first thought they were kinda cute. Soon large colonies of these creatures had become firmly established and were driving the natives to drink. The creatures were called “tonocololocai” by the islanders in their native tongue, though the ability to pronounce this tended to be inversely proportional to how inebriated the annunciator happened to be at the time. (A popular pastime on the island was to see who could drink the most without mispronouncing “tonocololocai”. One of the more common alcohol-induced mispronunciations sounded something like “tonoloco-loco-loco”, and some etymologists believe this to be the true origin of the term “loco”.)
After depleting their limited stores of Caribbean rum, the natives began distilling an amazingly flavorful and potent concoction using relatively scarce sugarcane juice and molasses combined with copious amounts of coconut milk, the juice of annatto seeds and the readily available (and, it turned out, mildly hallucinogenic) droppings of the tonocololocai. So successful was the pacifying sedative effect of this liquor that the natives soon forgot about their island being overrun by by the tonocololocai and instead occupied their few collective sober moments building a community processing plant for their new concoction, the centerpiece of which was a monumentally gigantic and ornate still built in the style of Louis XIV. In all, it was a raging success and a strange synergy gradually developed between the tonocololocai and the islanders, who began welcoming the creatures into their homes, schools and places of worship. The tonocololocai multiplied, while the islanders mostly continued drinking.
One late Thursday, while the afternoon shift of the still boiler tenders were distractedly engaged in a spirited game of loco-loco, a marauding gaggle of tonocololocai intent on finding out for themselves what all the fuss over gathering their dung was about passed much too close to the boiler fires. Their fur caught flame and they scattered, carrying the fire into the walls and floors of the still and throughout the processing plant. Before anybody could sober up enough to respond, the entire plant was ablaze. Fire quickly spread, and once the liquor holding tanks were breached the entire island was quickly engulfed and completely destroyed.
None of the tonocololocai survived, and the only islanders who lived to tell the tale happened to be some distance from the island on a small fishing vessel, themselves playing the loco-loco game to relax after a grueling day of hard drinking. On seeing their island home erupt into a giant inferno, they quickly downed all of the tonocololocai liquor they had with them and passed out, except for one young man who somehow managed to remain conscious. He couldn’t believe his eyes as he watched his entire world – his home, family, culture, people and every aspect of his life – reduced to smoldering cinders before his eyes. This was beyond belief; the worst of all possible nightmares. Out of habit, he pinched his nose shut and tried breathing through it. . . and discovered that he was dreaming.
The Tonocololocai
DR. JAMES KROLL INTERVIEW – Investigating the PSI Phenomenon
Apr 1st
Lucid Dreaming and PSI Phenomenon – an XZone Interview
Dr Kroll is an electrical engineer by profession. He earned his Ph.D. degree from SUNY Stony Brook in 1997 and has gone on to work on the development, design and management of various telecommunications projects with a number of highly visible telecom equipment providers.
Dr Kroll has also had a lifelong interest in dreaming, stemming from a number of unusual dream re-entry experiences and intense nightmares he had as a child. He had his first off the cuff lucid dream back in 1998. He found it to be a fascinating experience and read up on the subject in an attempt to induce these experiences more reliably. Early attempts met with only modest success.
In 2006, Dr Kroll rekindled his interest in lucid dreaming. By now, technology had improved and numerous web sites had popped up dedicated to the art of lucid dreaming. With all this additional information and options, he found it fairly easy to learn to lucid dream on demand. He has now experienced well over 800 lucid dreams in the last 4 years.
Dr Kroll is a subject matter expert on use of supplements to modify neurotransmitter levels in the brain to induce brain states that are conducive to lucid dreaming. He also holds a recent patent application on the use of cranial electro stimulation to induce lucid dreaming. Dr Kroll also has a lifelong interest in PSI phenomenon. He is now coupling his interests in lucid dreaming and PSI phenomenon to investigate the use of this unusual altered state of consciousness to design experiments that will hopefully shed some light on the connection between the dreaming mind and PSI. – http://www.mortalmist.com/
Listen to the podcast here:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/xzone/20100331_seg2.mp3
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http://xzonenation.blogspot.com/2010/03/wed-mar-2010-tonight-on-x-zone-with-rob.html
Review – Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide, by Ryan Hurd
Apr 1st
Ryan Hurd of DreamStudies.org has announced the release of his new eBook, Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide.
While written primarily to those concerned about or suffering from sleep paralysis, the book is a great read for anybody interested in sleep science and research. It will be of particular interest to anybody involved in lucid dreaming, as SP is likely to be encountered at some point by most people using lucid induction techniques.
Part 1 is a practical guide to dealing with SP. It includes immediate and longer-term tactics for breaking the cycles and altering the circumstances often involved with problem SP.
Part 2 is about dealing with what is often the most horrific aspect of SP; the encounters with “The Apparition” – those disturbing specters that can accompany the paralysis.
Part 3 addresses the many ways that SP, once understood and under control, may be leveraged for enjoyment and benefit. This includes ways to use SP as a transition into OBEs and Lucid Dreaming, along with discussion about hypnogogia and creativity. The last chapter is a comprehensive discussion about ways to improve the chances of achieving SP, including techniques, supplements and other practices.
Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide is an easy, compelling read. While the material presented is often in the realm of scholarly theory and research, it is presented in a manner that is accessible and even entertaining. Ryan Hurd’s writing style is warm and inviting, and the book is beautifully laid out and illustrated.
Ryan Hurd is a dream researcher living in the Pacific Northwest of the US. He is the creator of DreamStudies.org, and is also a dream educator at TheDreamTribe.com. Hurd has a MA in Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University, and is a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
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Here is Ryan’s announcement with links:
After a LONG wait, my ebook Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide is available for download. The attractively designed ebook is a How-To guide for overcoming the fear of sleep paralysis nightmares, and navigating the powerful waters of lucid dreaming and out-of-body-experiences that sometimes come with SP.
Check out the book’s highlight’s here.
Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide is designed to stop sleep paralysis nightmares, and uncover the triggers in your life that bring on the weird nighttime experience of being held down by invisible entities. But the ebook is also a manual for your journey past the fear and the terrors , which can include realistic visions of ghosts, goblins, and demons.
My approach is holistic, and teaches you how to transform these nightmares into a wide variety of amazing and powerful lucid dream experiences, including ancestral visitations, OBEs, and lucid guided journeys. This is powerful medicine almost forgotten by modern society but still-well known in many indigenous communities around the world.
Here’s what the dream research community has said about Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide:
People who suffer sleep paralysis inevitably focus on their fear and discomfort, but rarely do they recognize that this strange experience also holds a huge potential for mind/body growth and enlightenment. Ryan Hurd, a brilliant researcher and emerging leader in the field of dream studies, offers a brand new perspective on sleep paralysis that provides both practical help and inspirational guidance. Hurd’s excellent new book gives clear and effective advice about how to diminish the painful symptoms of sleep paralysis, while leading readers to a deeper appreciation of the incredible power of the dreaming imagination – a power that can promote greater health and conscious awareness in all of us.
- Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D., author of Dreaming in the World’s Religions: A Comparative History
If you suffer from sleep paralysis, buy this book. Inside it are powerful techniques, real knowledge and experienced advice from a former sleep paralysis sufferer. Using practical techniques, insightful advice and scientific research, Hurd takes the SP sufferer on a journey from intense fear to real hope and empowerment. Benefit from his insight, and learn how to resolve your sleep paralysis for good.
- Robert Waggoner, author of Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self
Buy Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide by clicking here.
The secure download of this 100+ page ebook also comes with a Sleep Paralysis Management worksheet, as well as an informative one hour interview with sleep paralysis expert Jorge Conesa-Sevilla, Ph.D., author of Wrestling with Ghosts: a Personal and Scientific Account of Sleep Paralysis.
Thank you for supporting DreamStudies.org and my ability to do this work! Proceeds for this ebook will also go towards my academic research fund, including my presentation of this material to the International Association for the Study of Dreams this June in Asheville, NC.
As always, feel free to contact me at any time about this product or any aspect of DreamStudies.
Yours,
Ryan Hurd
Ryan Hurd, PO BOX 425, Inverness, CA 94937, United States
Engaging With Dreams – a Mortal Mist Workshop
Jan 29th
Engaging with Dreams
Everyone is invited to a workshop entitled Engaging with Dreams. As the title suggests, we’ll be looking at ways of getting more out of dreams especially through recognising where our own ways of thinking and being can be used to special effect.
Dreams are generally considered to be the products of unconscious processes, by which we mean thoughts and feelings that occur outside of our conscious control. This has led some to conclude that we need to understand the language of our unconscious mind through the symbolism of dreams. Yet most have found that dream dictionaries constructed using these ideas to be highly speculative and probably flawed. Are there other ways of getting access to the dreamer’s unconscious? I believe there is. But it is not straightforward, and for many of us we perhaps only get a sense of what’s going on no matter how hard we try and find meaning. It is that ‘sense’ that Engaging with Dreams is about.
Through looking at our own dreams and the dreams of others, we’ll share our observations, our emotional responses, our gut reactions and indeed anything that arises for us. In doing so we’ll find our more about how we personally understand unconscious processes and how these are revealed in dreams. Dream work of any type is a highly inexact science so what each of us will take from the workshop will be different and personal, perhaps shaped by the kinds of people we have each grown up to be.
Engaging with Dreams runs from 1 to 15 February, in seven simple stages. Watch out for the introductory thread which may appear as early as Sunday 31 January! Looking forward to engaging with as many dreamers as possible!
No previous experience required!
Sign up for this FREE workshop here.
Hosted by Mortal Mist
When We Know We Are Right, We Become Blind
Jan 29th
A caller on the radio this morning was talking about a favorite professor who was special because he always presented alternate viewpoints. As I drove, I imagined myself as that professor – teaching about a subject I am passionate and sure about, yet making a conscious decision to expose my pupils to perspectives and points of view I likely know are wrong. What an amazing thing to choose to do. What an amazing thing to be able to sit quietly through. . . and maybe even learn from.
Why is it so difficult to know when we are dreaming? We endure the most ridiculous situations in our dreams without ever questioning whether we are awake or asleep, because we know without a shadow of a doubt that we’re awake! Once we know we are right about our state of consciousness, we become blind to all other possibilities. It is human nature.
Imagine what it might be like to not be quite so sure of ourselves all the time. If we could learn to check for other possibilities every time we were certain about our circumstances, the chance of discovering we are dreaming would be much greater. Perhaps this is one reason children seem more likely to have spontaneous lucid dreams than adults! They haven’t been around long enough to know everything with such certainly – at least not until they become teenagers.
Our chance of becoming aware we are dreaming is not the only thing we stand to gain by learning to recognize our own blindness.
It’s Magic
Jan 27th
Who doesn’t enjoy a good magic show? An audience in the hands of a skilled illusionist is led into a place where people can be sawed in half and pass through walls, items can materialize and disappear, and minds can be read. Even though we know we are being fooled by skill, technology and showmanship, we love it. Our eyes are telling us something we want to believe. . . that magic can really happen.
When first becoming conscious in your dreams, the potential of it all may seem elusive. At first, it is difficult getting past being so excited that you wake yourself up. As you learn to stabilize and stay in the dream, you start experiencing a world that feels, smells and acts so real that under normal circumstances you would never suspect it is all a dream. Soon you soon come to understand this world is entirely your creation. If you want somebody to be there, just believe he’s behind you, turn around and find him. If you can’t find a door, you can pass through a wall or window or knock a hole to walk through. You can go through a mirror like Alice and see what the other side is like. Yes, you can fly – and it is absolutely incredible.
The more you experience, the more you come to realize is possible. The terms “possible” and “impossible” don’t even fit when it comes to our dreams – you are limited only by your own imagination and creativity.
That doesn’t mean all lucid dreamers choose to control their dreams. Many just experience what comes, secure in the knowledge they are completely safe and nothing can happen that will have any consequences in the real world.
Whether you choose to control yourself or your world, the control is magical. Experiencing that magic is what keeps us lucid dreamers returning for more.
The Mission – Control Your Dreams
Jan 25th
Have you ever wanted to share something absolutely amazing with others, but were stumped about how to present it? This probably isn’t all that common a dilemma for most people, but it is a problem those of us who practice Lucid Dreaming face all the time.
The term Lucid Dreaming is a handicap, though it is the ubiquitous label for all we do and try to convey. Have you considered what lucid dreaming might mean to the uninitiated? The adjective Lucid means:
1. easily understood; completely intelligible or comprehensible
2. characterized by clear perception or understanding; rational or sane
3. shining or bright
4. clear; pellucid; transparent
(Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lucid)
As you can see, lucid dream is a misnomer! If you don’t understand the term in the context we use it, it doesn’t tell you anything about what we do.
The beginning of any effort to reach out is to learn the language of your audience. In our case, that means we need to begin with a label that actually means something to the non-lucid dreamers of the world. Aware dreaming comes close, as it directly speaks to the conscious awareness central to the lucid dreaming experience. But it is more than awareness – it is control. The thing that differentiates a lucid dream from all other dreams is that we take control, which opens up a limitless playground to do anything we want to do.
While lucid dreamers understand well the vast implications of lucidity, the world is unlikely to ever find us if we expect them to figure out what we mean when we speak of lucidity in the context of dreams. Our mission, then, is to find a way to tell the world not about lucid dreaming, but about the human capacity to control our dreams.
Hey, world! There’s something you need to know, and you’re going to love it: YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR DREAMS!
And we can tell you how.
The Call Of The Dream
Jan 21st
My discovery of lucid dreaming was really more of a re-discovery, as I had some strange lucid dreams as a child. I didn’t know what they were though, so most of my life was spent in ignorance of what I was missing.
In February of 2006, I stumbled onto an online article talking about lucid dreaming. That night I had a brief lucid dream that ended with me running through a beautiful lush meadow with my dog. The experience was hyper-real to all my senses and seemed absolutely miraculous. I could run like the wind, do cartwheels, smell and feel the air as I rushed through it. . . and my joyous dog began turning into a panda as she ran along with me.
That taste was enough to know that I wanted to spend as much time in that magical place as possible. The anticipation of getting back there remains as intense as anything I’ve ever longed for in my life.
It is frustrating to try explaining this to people who haven’t experienced lucid dreams. There just aren’t words that can be put together to convey the majesty and magic of it. Even after four years of lucid dreaming, the passion to get back there and spend as much time as possible hasn’t waned a bit.
Anybody who has experienced a lucid dream will understand exactly what I’m talking about.
And to those of you who haven’t. . . all I can really think to say is that you quite literally have no idea what you are missing. There is no way you could possibly know.
But you can find out.
