The Dreaming is a state in which the dreamer has gained conscious awareness of self and volition of movement within the Dream landscape. This is the result of a progressive process that begins with remembering dreams. Keeping pen and paper by the bed and jotting down the last thing you remember no matter how fragmentary. As well when waking in the middle of the night. These must be written down immediately as they will be overwritten by morning. This requires discipline. You’re reinforcing a level of consciousness you don’t generally access while awake. The longer you maintain this practice, the stronger your recall will become. Recalling the dream while awake creates an avenue for recalling the waking world in the dream. Any break in any of these routines will put you back at square one.
Next is to find a particular object or place in your Dreamscape. This is done by simple command as your going to sleep.
Say you pick, a red chair. As you’re dozing off, repeat slowly, and matter of factly, “find the red chair.” It’s helpful if it’s something you’re liking to run into while awake. These things are cemented in our consciousness. The moment you’re in a dream and remember, red chair, you’ve penetrated the Dreamscape with your waking awareness. This may cause you to awaken. Continue with the object you’ve selected as nightly practice. Going to the same place over and over makes it easier to maintain the state.
The next step is a stable dream body. Again diligence is key. You change your command from your object, to parts of your body. A technique made popular in the 1970’s was to first, find your hands. The command would be, look at hands. When you arrive at that moment, the instinct will be to stare at them, which will result in them morphing into some hideous shape just before you wake up. One must avert their gaze from falling on any object for more than just a few seconds, or you will wake up. We learn to walk in the Dreamscape by sweeping our gaze from left to right and right to left constantly. One can practice this while walking in the waking world to cement the behavior. As well you can periodically raise your hands and look at them to reinforce your dream quest for control. Once one achieves a degree of control in the Dreamscape turning in a circle can help to keep from focusing on any one thing while collecting their wits.
Beyond this there is developing your sense of taste and smell, by, tasting and smelling things in the Dreamscape.
Just as the waking mind enters the Dreamscape, the dreaming mind in turn enters the waking world. This is experienced as a sudden overwhelming fatigue accompanied by visions. One might even enter a clairvoyant state involuntarily. Pit falls along the way include waking before sleep paralysis wears off causing panic and hallucinations and periodic problems with regulating body temperature. |
