Dreaming

Dreaming the Dance, Pt3 and final part.
The Dreaming.
By Steve Hawkins


Everybody dreams but you can go much further than
that, Patricia Garfield's book "Creative Dreaming"
(pub. 1975) gave me my start on Dreamer's Path. The
methods of dream control detailed below are drawn
from my own first hand experience.

Pick up your meditation diary and turn it upside
down so that the front page is now the back page and
write on it "Dream Diary". Open it up and write in
the date, you'll be using this book a lot.

Dreams are normally retained in the most volatile
part of your short term memory, upon awaking you have
5 minutes at the most to record a rough sketch of the
dream in your dream diary. A dream diary is an must!

Recording the dreams as key points of interest
with quick graphic sketches is all that is necessary.
You'll find these sketches act as prompts allowing
you to recall the dream in total for a more indepth
analysis!

Fill any gaps later in the next day, some dreams
deserve a detailed account. Don't wait too long if
deeper analysis is warranted as the prompts fade with
time.

The need to pee is one of the easiest ways to
enjoy short periods of dream consciousness, but
don't use this technique if you have a weak bladder.
You will awaken in the dream state immediately before
you physically wake, as soon as you realise you are
dreaming express the need to stay a little longer.
Allow the dream to take its course excepting to pee,
for this ask why, you will engage the rational mind
and awaken immediately.

A warm cup of herb tea before retiring aids this
technique, Cammemille is a nice soothing drink. If
this doesn't work add some lemongrass.

Once the dreaming starts you have to reach
lucidity. Dream consciousness can be achieved as a
result of an emotional response, a physical response
or a conditioned response. The dreamer's mind seems
to be quite primitive, it has the ability to perceive
the full range of physical senses plus some and the
full range of emotional responses, love, hate, joy,
sorrow, fear, sympathy etc.

When you feel an emotion and you think you are
dreaming express it! Say "I love you", "I sympathise
with you", "I fear you"; or touch the object of your
emotion.

By doing so you gain consciousness within the
dream. Do not direct the dream as you would a play;
allow it to flow, to follow its own course.

The subject of a dream can be controlled by
dream induction, this includes setting up your key.
To do this you must identify a specific goal then
immerse your self in all matters pertaining to the
desired subject. This process usually takes about 3
days.

If you need the dream to follow a specific
course, express your need. Doing so directs your
consciousness along the desired path.

You must test the apparent reality to see if you
are awake in the physical world or in the lucid
dream state. I use my conditioned response to confirm
the lucid dream state. Do not use any test that
awakens the analytical mind because you only have
that faculty when awake!

Remember to regularly test your dreams and always
use a test you can afford to fail. In the dream state
you can fly, travel in time, walk through walls;
things you can't do in the physical world.

Every serious dreamer will reach a stage where
they can't resist testing the physical world, you
can't know the truth until you try, right! (yea!
you've seen "Matrix"). It took months for the gravel
rash on my nose and chin to heal, use a test you can
afford to fail, no leaping off tall buildings with a
single bound!

The conditioned response requires some
preparation, I like to fly in my dreams so I go into
a routine where I symbolically separate from the
physical world by rising into the air, something I
can't do in the physical world. This induces dream
consciousness for me.

The conditioned response is a technique you use
after you've tried all the others as it requires some
dedication from the dreamer. Feel free to write your
own script.

There is another conditioned response, the
controlled "exit". Design yourself a rune, it can be
any sign, it doesn't have to be a true Rune. When you
awaken to pee or what ever note the dream scenario
before you physically wake up and write your exit
rune in the air. Make a quick note in your diary.

After you return to bed visualise the dream
scenario you noted on exit and then write your rune
in the air, most times the dream will continue on its
natural path with you in full dream consciousness.

Once you're accustomed to using an exit rune its
time to design your "key". A key is a conditioned
emotional response and similar to an exit rune in all
but the way it is used.

It takes some effort to set up a key, well lets
say you get out of it what you put in, every time you
use it. Design your self a rune that is special to
you, something that you "feel" very strongly about
but not a design that you are likely to encounter by
chance in your waking life.

A key is a rune that allows you to enter the lucid
dream state from a meditation and to exit again at
will. The conditioned response is a set routine you
design for yourself with as much emotive content as
possible.

To set up your key you must already be in the
lucid dream state, you must have memorised your
routine and be familiar with your scenario. The basic
routine is draw the key in the air or on the doorway
as you see it, pass through the doorway into the
meditative state, then count back to a controlled
awakening into the physical world and test for the
dream state.

Record a quick sketch of your experience in your
dream diary then lay back in your bed for the return
journey. Do the relaxation count-down, visualise
your scenario, see the doorway and draw your key;
now pass through into the lucid dream state.

If there is anything else you want to do, do it,
finish off the routine by drifting from the dream
state into sleep. When you wake in the morning check
your dream diary to remember the experience fully
and to check that you were not dreaming that you were
awake!

From now on you use your key to move from the
waking state to the lucid dream state and back to
the waking state. Revealing your key to anyone will
disempower it to some extent, there is no need to
do it.

The scenario; a good example is the entrance to
Moria from Tolkein's "The Fellowship of the Ring".
But if you use that then watching re-runs of "The
Lord of the Rings" will never be the same again!

Your scenario will evolve into a repertoire of
visualisations that you employ as you need them.
The Otherworld is an amazing place, be creative!

My particular area of interest is using lucid
dreaming as a research tool however it didn't
start out like that. Originally I applied lucid
dreaming purely for the entertainment value. Its in
3D with surround sound, smell and taste, full
tactile sensation, better than television!

The "key" is the way I achieved "at-one-ness"
for the research needed to tie up all the loose
ends in the 3rd draft of "The Secret Tarot". This
is the work upon which the "Giant's Dance" series
is based. I'd start the working day with a
meditation and enter the lucid dream then return
to the draft, re-entering the lucid dream state as
necessary for up to 4 hours in a sitting.

Working at that pace really taxed my brain
chemistry, I wouldn't do it again. If your going
to use the "key" for research, work at a leisurely
pace!

Dreaming supports the belief that the Physical
World is a reflection of the "Otherworld" or "Spirit
World" and that things manifest in the spirit first.
As Galadrial said in 'The fellowship of the Ring',
"you will see some things that have not yet come to
pass".

Foresight brings with it a responsibility beyond
the lot of mortal man, if you seriously try to skry
the future you might just succeed! Is the story of
Cassandra of Troy familiar to you?

Which brings me to my final point; you will have
noticed that dreams often don't make any sense.
That's because when you're awake you are passing the
dreams through the minds rational filters. They
don't fit!

In his book "The White Goddess" Robert Graves
refers to "Poetic Logic", that is, non-rational
thought. The Celtic classic "The High History of
the Holy Grail" is composed almost entirely of
Poetic Logic.

The justification for imposing rational upon Human
thought was man's inherent imperfection, its a
product of a belief in "the fall of man". I believe
that "the fall of man" is possibly the earliest
example of social engineering, that "the fall of man"
is a direct result of getting people to believe in
"the fall of man"! My research suggests that all
thought has an inherent integrity being a direct
utterance of the soul!

The early information retrieved by lucid dreaming
will be predominantly visual images supported by the
impressions of the other senses, plus feelings and
intuitions. Early attempts at direct communication
with Otherworld folk does not seem to make sense.

However, if you relax and just let it happen
you'll find that woven into the information stream
are flashes of inspiration which, once experienced,
are an effective form of communication. You don't
think it, you feel it! Anyhow if you "hang in there"
long enough you'll get used to it.

From my experience researching "the Giant's Dance"
I can say with confidence that there are spirits
who are prepared to teach mortals, that they are
organised into groups and that those groups interact
co-operatively. I have no idea of the politics of
this situation other than it exists. I didn't come
across "Hogwort's" in my travels.

What place does science play in all of this?
Mother Nature is a Goddess who strides across her
realm doing what she will. Science is a monkey who,
when not riding on man's back, follows right behind
her imitating her every move!

We can't see the Goddess from within her, we can
only see the monkey! It stops now and then gibbering
"look, she does exactly what I say!"

Western Europe's "First Nations" folk have
inherited some cultural beliefs and practices that
are their exclusive intellectual property. Parts of
this work are the result of my own research,
specifically the "controlled exit" and the "key". I
gift these to the First Nations people of Western
Europe as the intellectual property of their
respective cultures.

The right to expand upon this work (Dreaming the
Dance, pt1 & 3), to develop culturally specific
interpretations of this work or to translate it into
another language rests exclusively with the First
Nations folk of Western Europe including their
expatriate communities.

"Dreaming the Dance, pt3" is not public domain
but providing that no fee is charged it can be
supplied as resource material for any course of
study.

(c) Hawkins 2011