Thea, you are an inspiration, for both your awesome lucid talents and wonderful insight. I had previously believed in the Onion Theory of dreams, which states that there is no one "right" interpretation to a dream, but many, many layers, so that it is possible to look at dreams in many different ways and thus dream characters can be aspects of the dreamer yet can also be something more, ( I like your universal "I" concept, Joy); but I feel you've hit an even deeper level, Thea, with the idea that dream characters play out our attitudes towards them. I think that's what Stephen meant too, when he said that you dream your expectations, but you've said it in a really clear way. As for our dream conversation, Thea, on the night I came back from Kalani I dreamed I had gone swimming naked in a canal, then had a long conversation with an unidentified girl who asked how much I weighed, if it was 88 or 120 pounds. We then talked about eating habits, that it was hard but possible to change them. I told her I had had bulimia but had changed to healthy eating. At some point a car at an intersection did a U turn. We then talked about taking classes, and Chiron (the company I work for), paying for it. I said I took genetics and Immunology but didn't finish immunology because it was boring. Any of this sound familiar? purrs and furrs, Naomi

Dearest dream collaborators

I accomplished my second bout with lucidity.

I was "awoken" in my dream to hear myself say''This is a dream?', sh-yea''This is a dream!' (It seemed so obvious once I heard myself say it. Didn't even need a reality test)

I was instantly frightened at what this meant, (My fears, my reality) and proceeded to see a somewhat scary figure. (go figure) At once I decided to face my fear and walk (float or fly actually) towards my shady compatriot. Not realizing my speed, I actually ran into (through actually) my new found friend. At once I felt out of sorts ( a bit like being in a washing machine on spin cycle; without the washing machine), and felt as if I was losing the "focus.' I spun, or rather tried a different type to keep my lucidity, but very soon after awoke.

On another positive note, I start work an hour later. (I won't miss those 260 hours) Good for my dreams, my family, and me. I'm trying to put my thoughts into actions as soon as possible. It was nice to spend so much time with people so open in their ideas and beliefs. It helped me get more in touch with what matters in life, and putting those ideas into actions before the feeling dissolves like a distant dream memory.

( : smyles : )

Myles - Eeeexcellent!

Thea & Naomi, I agree. I just read where Gayle Delaney says something similar in a different way (less elegantly than Thea's) in Living Your Dreams(a book on dream incubation), following through with a movie analogy: "You are the stars of your dreams.... You may have missed some of your best performances by not recognizing that it was you who played the part of most of your dream characters! Of course, you as scriptwriter-producer have created supporting roles for your close friends and family. When they play themselves (more or less) you tend to use them in a scene to represent some feelings you have about them. Sometimes you have them play themselves in order to illustrate the dynamics of your relationships with them."

This doesn't cover the other possibility I alluded to, though: by showing up my my dream with previously unknown-to-me information about herself, Naomi was doing more than illustrating my attitudes about her. I like to think some aspect of her spirit was directly contacting mine in a very real way.

By the way, I doubt that I could possibly dream anything about anyone that they didn't want me to know, especially since I set myself during dream camp and the week following to dream for the benefit of the group. Wouldn't it be cool if I dreamed about Naomi asserting "I am a beautiful person" just when she could use a reminder that she does indeed glow with the colors and luminosity of that which she draws to her and draws from within her? Ah - come to notice, I was dreaming that close to the time that Naomi was discussing body image and bulimia with a dream character - which I didn't know had been an issue....

Enough of this: I'm going to get in trouble for practicing oracle without a license. I promise: No more incubating group dreams unless we all try a group experiment at any point, and if meanwhile I happen to dream of any of you I'll send it via private e-mail absolutely free of charge.

Joy

I feel compelled to straighten out some technical details, since we're talking about concurrent dreams, Joy. I write the date of my dreams as the date of the night I go to sleep. I had the bulimia conversation on the night I got back home, 3/7, so it wasn't the night I said I was beautiful in your dream. But hey, thanks anyway, I'll take the dream compliment anytime, by whoever was playing my part in the dream, though I think I probably do have a problem with accepting compliments and not wanting to appear "vain". Another thing is that I did have a bout with bulimia about 25 years ago, but it had more to do with trying to get around a diabetic diet than body image. (I'd have cake and ice cream and before my blood sugars had time to go up I'd throw it up.) Now I think I have image issues about my aging body, so what you wrote about me glowing with luminosity and colors sounds wonderful. Actually I've been drawing with my irridescent oil pastels ever since I got back, so maybe that's the connection I'm "drawn" to.

to glowing luminous lucidity Naomi

Thanks, luminous Naomi, and apologies too - I actually came here this morning with intent to delete that latter, highly speculative part of my last message. My general policy if I think I may have dreamed something real about someone, is to leave the interpretation to them!

Joy

What I'm doing now:

Wow, I'm finally back "home," Kenyon College. I have been sleeping irregularly for such a long time - after the retreat, I stayed on the island for a few more days at a hostel, "Arnott's Lodge" where I befriended a German guy, "Dirk." Dirk and I rented a car and hiked all over the Waipio Valley, waded through the Waipio river with our bags resting precariously on our heads, hiked up the steepest hill I've ever encountered, and back again. I left Hawaii the next day, and after more hours and airports than I can recall, arrived in Columbus Ohio. Spring break was still in full force, so I drove to DC, visited friends at Georgetown U. Lots of fun, and a few parking tickets, then Flannigan (my jeep) and I headed up a confusing snarl of turnpikes, tunnels and bridges into Manhattan to visit another friend. I had thought I'd stay there, but cought a train with another friend up north, then rode with a guy and his girlfriend I sort of knew out to catch a ferry to Martha's Vineyard, where I spent time with more friends. And there were many friends I wanted to spend time with but couldn't! I have too many friends... if ya'll did not notice, I was spending the night with friends who worked at Kalani by the end of the retreat. Friends friends friends!! I should stop reading Karoac. Life on the road is too much fun. I have much work to do now, from the sailing club to chem lab. I'm going to break this message into two parts now.

Briefly (I have a class soon), I must retrospect on Hawaii. I did not think I was 'designed', nor capable, of enjoying life as much as I did those days in Hawaii. I definately love life, and enjoy it very much, but I was pushing boundaries and reaching heights that were beyond, just... beyond. And no drugs! Who could have known? I have yet to have a lucid dream, and it's not like I haven't been trying. Nor have I been forcing it, or getting bent out of shape - it just hasn't happened. Though I do recall them better, and I had my first clearly meaningfull dream in a long time one morning in the Vineyard (in a 12 year old's top bunk bed that was, oh, about a foot or two too short for me - maybe the cramped space was to blame). Wow, just writing this, I get a sense that a lucid dream is very much within reach. I think maybe tonight... Hey all, my friend in Austin has made a website that contains, so far, two movies my friends and I have made. Michel, you especially should check it out - http://www.big-katz.com I'm not staring in either film, as they shot them last summer while I was up north working on a farm, but I did much of the editing for "Burgle." I love you all, and may you have beautiful, meaningfull dreams - and remember them clearly. -Robert

Party on, my lucid friend Miles. Glad you had an LD. They're freakin' ay fabulous, aren't they? Yes, June, that Trelane was one naughty boy. Talley-Ho!!!! Okay, who was it that was going to run after us all with a feather? Make mine plenty fluffy and soft, okay? A fluffy little feather with a th'th'th'th'ee tip end. Th'th'th'ee is one of my words, and if you sound it out, with that long, flowing th, and that bright giggly ee, you'll get the picture. Most feathers have tip ends like that. I call it the thee tip end of a feather, and you're welcome to come after me with it. I had a nonlucid last night about dream camp that involved goodbyes and tears. I heard my dream self say that at least we can remain bonded by posting, and I awoke, missing you all terribly. I miss the meals, the laughter, the "party ons". I miss the lectures, and while some of it was visual, I miss us all being together as a group: our pheromones and energies all beginning to resonate together. It was such an empathic experience for me. And, darn it, I miss Kalani and Ke'aloha. Although I received and appreciated the dream hugs I got from some of you last night, I do miss my twins. Can't seem to get back to them, or the bar. Any ideas?

Make love with everything you find, sleeping or awake. Caress everything you touch. Inhale every fragrance as the scent of your beloved. Taste everything as a kiss. All the sounds you hear, all the sounds you speak, let them be the lyrics of a love song. Walking, let every grain of sand make love with the soles of your feet. You know this; the soles of your feet have told you this: Your dream-lovers are everywhere.

Bonjour Everybody,

Th, th, th, th, th, th It's true thea, you have to do it with your lips to really feel that name.

Thea, I've found a great song today on a site about dreams. I made a video with it for the group. I first need to find a video format that will suit everyone. For the time being I will only test with video. The second I know what works I add our video/audio clips.

Oh, and Thea, have you heard about this site: http://www.seeingwithsound.com/voice.htm Dr. Laberge had quickly mentionned the inventors of this machine when we were in Kalani. They are going to be the first presentors at a conference I will be attending in Tuscon, Arizona. I'll try to be there to get the lowdown on this invention, if I can create video that will "look" the same to all blind people then I would like to create some art all of the group could "see".

C'est toujours pour l'Amour qu'on devient fou ca doit etre plein d'amour parceque c'est plein de fou tout partout

I cried tonight thinking of sharing breaths of air with someone at Kalani. For a few seconds someone held me closer then I've felt to myself before. Yes, closer to myself, as if I had melted into myself. I was not dreaming when this happened, but I'll gladly dream of that moment for an eternity. I've realized that when other people have stood up to their "monsters" then they are never again afraid to melt into someone elses either... we melt into ourselves because this is all that we are. One.

Mahalo for the Aloha ;)

Did you know that lava could be seen nightly 10 minutes drive from Kalani? I learned too late to share with the group ;) Of course, I got the video ;)

I must stop writing, I could go on for hours. Peter, I miss you! Can you get me a digital shot of your 300lb "friend" in the basement... Hum... that reads funny doesn't it ;) (send me some of your writing already!)

Ok... back to my video work ;)

message to joy

force me to do a reality test please

what do you see in these images?

http://www.lucid.tv/shelley/shelleys_blues_ISDN.mov

Is that too big for you? Can you see quicktimes well? I can send it in any format.

Joy, I love the feeling that your poem, recently posted, conveys. Thanks

Now that I've had a full week to settle back into my life in the mundane world, surrounded once more by people whose concept of nirvana is a CD changer in the sport-ute, I'd like to indulge in a little rambling reflection on the magic of Dream Camp.

The source of the magic is obvious to me. It wasn't Hawaii. It wasn't Kalani's warmth and tasty rabbit food. It wasn't the cold, cold pool. It wasn't the pair of whales who had the good sense to swim by the very last time I stood on that familiar shore. For me, it wasn't even the lectures on LD's, or recitations of everyone's truly wonderful dream experiences. No. It was the company.

As I sat in Stephen's lectures, or in morning discussions, or even at meals, I was less absorbing the intellectual material ' I always was a lousy student ' than I was just basking in the euphoria that can only come when surrounded by souls who choose, or dare, to stroll easily along the same grassy path on which I've stumbled for decades.

This has never, ever, ever happened to me before. My immersion in a group of people actually interested in LD's was a miracle. Aside from my wife, Lisa, I have never met a person who cares about dreams, or who wouldn't look for my Bellevue ID bracelet if I started discussing them. Not only did you guys show me a side of humanity that I had forgotten existed, you proved that that facet of the soul is a real pipeline for creativity, imagination, and love. That, and I can finally abandon the lonely, "am I just insane?' feeling that crept in whenever I wondered if I was the only LD'er I would ever know.

Bless you all for reopening for me a spirited world of exploration and excitement on which I had nearly slammed a very heavy ethereal door. I know I didn't participate vocally very often (talking in groups for me is maddeningly difficult), but I did listen, to all of you, on many levels. You people are too honorable to understand how special you are, so I won't even try to explain.

Did dream camp help me with my LD's? The jury is still out on that. My dream goals are lofty, perhaps unattainable, but camp may have infused in me the discipline I abandoned years ago to go back to dreaming with a purpose, seeking both spiritual results and a whole lot of fun. Again, this new hope was not a result of Kalani, Stephen's words, Keelin's warmth, or even all the time I finally had to myself for quiet introspection.

Nope. None of the above. It was you guys. All of you. The magic of your natural camaraderie tapped my soul. I only hope my addled, cynical mind can cling to that power long enough to make a permanent impression.

Thank you all!

Peter

P.S. I was going to list some fun memories, and strange coincidences, that I jotted down (for three hours!) on the flight home, but I'll save them for a future posting.

Michele:

Miss you too!

Digital shot? Dude, you're the one with the toys, not me! If I can, I'll get a picture of it on my next roll of old-fashioned film, and email you the result afterword.

I'll be burning my books (now that DOES read funny) onto CD's in the next couple of weeks, and will be happy to shoot you a copy via snail mail (downloads would take too long from my end, what with the stone knives and bearskins I have to work with...).

Later

Peter

Peter. Michel. Bless your beautiful words which say it so well.

....

Michel, at 2 K/sec I will never get to work on time (already late as result of following advice in poem - lovely dream results, may post on request) - will try this weekend if no time before then - and my techno-son will be home on spring break to advise me. Eagerly awaiting opportunity to test reality with you!

Joy

Shelley, what beautiful images. Thank you for that. I also have the challenge of trying to put into words the experience of our Kalani retreat. When someone asks me, How was your trip to Hawaii, I think, Whoo-boy, how can I say it? You've somehow managed to condense into a few lines the richness of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feel of the entire experience. I love how you do that.

Michel, I've watched your video and as usual, it is some fine stuff! The moon, the clouds, the snaking people....all so dreamlike.

Joy, your magnificent poem gave me such, well -- Joy! I love how you put words together. You have much magic, my Lady of the Lake.

Peter, I also enjoyed the ability to share dream conversations with a fantastic company of people. I miss that so much. Every day brought new ways of sharing and discovering that is just not present in a law office 8 to 5. I am so glad you did not slam your aetherial door, Peter, as I thoroughly enjoyed my talks with you.

I had a lucid dream this morning, "Angelfish in Shallows." I was driving down a dark road at daybreak, with headlights illuminating the roadside. I know I am on my way home, but the road looks different. I am thinking this may be a dream, but I am not lucid yet. Suddenly I am in a large restaurant which sits on the top of a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. The headlands are green with new grass and twisted cypresses dot the bluffs. The details of this restaurant are very clear to me, almost to the level I reach in lucid dreaming, but I'm still not there yet. I can see that I am the only one in here. The chairs and tables are very nice and neat, tablecloths and candles in place, I can see that the black and white checkerboard floor is spotless, and the huge picture windows have sea spray on them. I walk through this quiet place and out a side door, down some wide, winding wooden steps that go down the side of the bluff to the sandy beach below the restaurant. There is a cove hidden away from the main seashore, and the shallow standing waters there are so very clear that you can see the smooth, shining pebbles on the sandy bottom. I see two large black and white angelfish swimming in the shallows, lazily gliding back and forth. I think how nice it would be to touch one. So one of them swims up to me and sort of swim/floats right out of the water and into the air before me. I touch him and think, I wonder how he's breathing out of the water? And then I realize, this is a dream. So I finally attain the lucidity that has been eluding me since the beginning of this dream. I recall my predream intention was that I wanted to ask dream dolphins about their methods of healing. Since I didn't have any dolphins at hand, but I did have these fine dream angelfish, I decided to ask them about their fishy healing methods. At once the dream starts to fade, and so I spin my dream body faster and faster, and end up back in the restaurant, but this time it is full of people. However, I am at a very good level of lucidity, so I am happy about that, but I am anxious to get back down to those fish! People keep stopping me to talk about this or that, and I am getting frustrated because I really don't have time to talk! My sister and her two daughters appear and start talking to me, but I tell them that I do not mean to be rude, but I must get down to the beach...I awoke still trying to get back to those angels...

Health & Healing to all of you, June

Wow, June, what a lovely thought for me to take into my morning nap. The sandy beach and the angelfish. I can imagine it now: standing on that beach with the twins, listening to their sweet-voiced descriptions of the colorful fish. Of course, they will really be your descriptions, but how sweet they will sound. And, Joy, thanks for that poem. Another inspiring set of images. If I'm successful with my intentions, I'll be back to report later. Oh yes, I'm reading about the Senoi? in Patricia Garfield's "Creative Dreaming". What an amazing culture. I now regularly ask my family for dream reports after sleeps and naps. I think my little Mandy will become lucid some day. The other night, I asked her at bedtime, "Theeth, what would you like to dream about?" She said "Flying. I want to fly." Next morning, she came into my room to tell me she had dreamed she'd been in a plane, and ET was sitting with her. Yes, ET, the extraterrestrial. She was disappointed that she didn't fly. "But, Thee-Thee, you did fly," I said. "You nearly did what you wanted. You were in a plane; that flies. With a space creature, who also can fly. You're almost there." She couldn't see it, of course; she's only four. But I'll be darned if that kid doesn't become lucid before she reaches Grade 1. Hehehehehe. My son, Jamie, on the other hand, like his dad, has no interest. In fact, he's afraid of his dreams, wants nothing to do with any suggestions I give him, and wants only a dreamless night's sleep. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I hate those kinds of nights. If I don't wake up with something, I feel cheated. I think I know why I'm not seeing the twins as I intend. I'm going to sleep too late and having to awaken too early. Well, I'm off to my nap. Aloha all, and happy dreams.

Darn it, I forgot to do something I wanted to do: explain some of the words and names I've been using. Haole, my description of dream character Stan, is a Hawaiian word, pronounced how-lee, means "White person". Ke'aloha means Love. Kalani means The Heavens. Aloha Thea. Email and MSN: theethers@hawaii.rr.com. By the way, if anyone from dream camp would be interested in live key to key or voice chat, I'd love that. Party On!

Halleluia! Or should I say helelucid? I wasn't lucid the whole time, but my morning nap did produce some desirable results. At first, it was nonlucid. I was in Hawaii, and I was with a man, but the man was my brother, Kenny. We were talking about snow, and I said, "There isn't any snow in Hawaii, except on the mountaintop, sometimes." He said, "I'll drive you up there sometimes, so you can feel the snow. Especially on a cold day like today." (It is rather cold for Hawaii today.) I said that would be okay, as long as he wasn't high on cocaine when we went up there. (To my knowledge, Kenny doesn't use it, but when I was a bored teenager, he regaled me one night with stories of adventures on drugs.) In the dream, I thought I might try some myself when Kenny mentioned how sweet, intense, and short-lived it is. (Like my dreams themselves.) Then I was on the beach, preparing to board the twins' boat. At first, I couldn't get in. It seemed as difficult as trying to return to the womb. One of the twins got out of the boat and proceeded to help me into it. At that moment, I heard my kids' voices and feared they would call me back to reality, I feared the dream would change. But noone called me or stopped me. I got into the boat. But I wanted to be alone with the twins. A crowded shoreline was not what I had in mind. And, dammit, I had to go to the bathroom. I sure hoped I didn't have to leave the boat again. There was a sense of urgency, of time running short, of fear that things wouldn't happen the way I wanted them to. I said, "Do you have a bathroom?" Ke'aloha said, "Sure. It's kind of small." He showed me back there, and I was pleased to find it wasn't the claustrophobic cubicle in the bar, but relatively spacious. It was at that point that the tacit lucidity became a confessed out loud lucidity. I said, "Now I'm going to spin and spin till we're far out at sea. Now I'm going to spin and spin, and then I'm going to sin." (My conservative Judeo-Christian waking life values conflicting with the rampant sexual fulfillment and freedom I sought in dreams.) Fearing that the word "sin" would somehow stop the action of the dream, I said, "Well, I am deeply in love". I spun and spun us out to sea, describing verbally as I did so the absence of everything but ocean. I felt the rocking of the boat as I emerged into the boat's living quarters. I said to the twins, "This is such a beautiful dream. I don't ever want to wake up. I want to stay asleep forever, maybe even be in a coma." As I walked over to a couch on the left side of the room, I asked them what they wanted to do. Kalani said, "Oh, anything's possible. If you want to get laid, that's a possibility too." I sat down beside Ke'aloha, put my arm around him. At first, I was afraid he wouldn't accept my physical affection. That he would be preoccupied, as my real life partner is. He doesn't like to be touched that much. But Ke'aloha let me hug him. He kissed me, and I felt that velvety mustache again. I said, "You do love me, don't you?" He replied, "Of course I do." I said, "Darling, when I imagined you, I didn't imagine you with a mustache. The dream gave you that." I felt grateful to the dream for improving on my daydream. We kissed again; I put my head on his chest, then lay down on his lap. Kalani got up from where he was sitting on the right side of the room, and came to us. He took off my shoes and socks while Ke'aloha gently rocked me with the rhythm of the boat. When Kalani had removed my shoes and socks, he placed my feet on the sofa and positioned himself there to massage or caress them. The fun was about to begin in earnest, but I awoke, very much against my will. Damn and double damn. I do however feel happy that I am learning to skirt some dream control danger signs, things that distract from the purpose or wake you up. I feel that I'm beginning to steer my own personal dream boat more efficiently, avoiding rocky shoals and other dangers. Aloha for now, Thea.

In my last message, I made a rather interesting typo. "Halleluia! Or should I say helelucid?" The word "hele" pronounced hellay is Hawaiian for "move" or "go". Helelucid, "to move toward lucidity?" "Go lucid?" Hmmm.

I love your poem, Joy. Although I haven't come across any of you in my dreams so far, I do believe that some of y'all's spirit has infiltrated my dreamlife. I watched cloud_hole yesterday, and then last night I dreamed that I was watching several short films by Mike Myers in his Austin Powers voice, of an 80's "minimalist" band, whose lyirics consisted of 1-2 words/song. The setting of one film was a college campus which was being teargassed. In one scene, a woman says in a purring British accent "Can I help you with that, baby?" and starts sawing off sections from a log with a chainsaw, but looking closely, one could see that, due to sly editing and camera manipulations, it seems that she is cutting too close to her hand, with each scene seeming to take off a progressively larger slice of her fingers. In the dream this is very clever and funny, in the manner of Stephen's films where perception is shown to be misleading. The result of all this is that the band members' feet appear deformed. The Austin Powers voice then says "Let me fix that for you, baby," then even more deformities appear, like extra toes, blackened toenails, warts appearing, etc. Well, you had to see it to appreciate it. Party on, dream film crew Naomi

Aloha Kalani lucids!

I very much enjoy your posts. Michel, your film is a dream!

Sorry, that I couldn't save it to CD. I have a very fast modem (DSL), but it took more than an hour to upload the huge thing. But waiting is rewarding!

CU again soon

Ralf

Wow, I didn't check the board for a few days and look at all the posts. This is great!

I'm afraid jet lag was hitting me pretty hard my first week back so my dream recall was almost non-existent (5 hours of sleep a night isn't conducive to anything but yawning all day). I know I had one lucid dream but I didn't remember any of it, just the feeling of the memory slipping away as I staggered off to work that day.

But I've caught up on my sleep now and had one lovely non-lucid dream last night - a variant on the old "I'm late for class and I haven't prepared" dreams that I've gotten on and off since college. I was going back to school and had signed up for an art class (I haven't drawn seriously since college). I had missed the first class and showed up at the very end of the second one, but I sat down and drew and produced a drawing that impressed the teacher despite having only 10 minutes to work in. It's the first time I've turned one of those classwork anxiety dreams around and I woke up with a great feeling of accomplishment.

Now that I'm caught up on sleep I intend to start setting my alarm to try some serious MILD for the next week (is that an oxymoron?). I've been upping my tonglen practice while awake to get myself prepared to try it in the next lucid dream where I remember my intention. So my ld goal has already had a benefical effect :-).

Thea, I'm so glad you became lucid when you met your mother in the dream. I remember discussing that with you at a meal.

Joy, thank you for the poem.

Suppose I should get organized and contact people about a NYC lucid dream dinner.

Yo, Jay, glad you had a good dream. So you read through my whole long post about the dream that began with my mother? I guess some of that Dream Camp stuff did sink in after all. What say, Campers? Anyone wanna do a chat on MSN? Thea MSN: theethers@hawaii.rr.com

So, Jay:

When will you be posting the picture you drew in your dream art class? It must have been excellent!

Andréa, I miss the anticipation of knowning that sometime during the day I would see you.

I don't really have much to say. I just wanted to let the world know that I miss Kalani and it's dreamers oh so very much ;)

Nice dream Jay!

Awwww, th'th'th'eether thather feather, velvet fur ... I miss the Dream Campers too. Our spirits seemed to have been knit together. All of us together in one room for so long, sharing dreams and laughs and everything, it's as if something very primeval happened there. Our pheromones influenced each other and mingled; our psychic energies influenced and melded each to other; till our dreams became a patchwork quilt on which we all worked, and our waking reality became a single web which we all spun our own unique strands in. Talk about your group dynamics; your chorus and response; your tribal psychophysiology; the collective consciousness, and unconscious. Many parts, one organism. In a cosmic way, we made love, and now separation is like being apart from the beloved. Now we're individuals in our own corners. It was a very empathic experience for me. Good thing we didn't all do Ecstasy, I'm not sure I could have stood much more resonating empathy. LOL My favorite memory from Kalani was the bizarre thing that happened that had both Keelan and I doing a quick reality check. I used the bathroom, opened the door, walked into my room and went to my bed. Everything felt the same, the curves and angles of the room, the distance from bathroom to bed, the feel of the bed. I reached over to my night table, and found someone else's stuff there. I did a quick feel, my stuff wasn't there. Hmmm, I thought, this might be a dream. I must have looked mighty confused because Keelan did the RC too. Turns out we were neither of us dreaming. A close second would be the night we watched "Groundhog Day". Jeez, that was a funny movie. I'll never hear "I Got You Babe" the same, again. The watsoo was pretty awesome. The most relaxing thing I've ever done. That day at the Volcano Center in front of the fireplace was something. Joy and I had a good time, and we weren't late for supper. Grin. And Joe's song about "Old Furball" was something I shared with my hubby. He got it, sort of, but it was one of those "you had to be there." The only thing I can say to folks who didn't make it is, You have to be there, next time.Well then, my beloved thattie-thee kittens, purr on, party on, and dream on.

Thea,

Now that you mention Ground Hogs day I have to tell you something incredible that happened to me while watching that movie.

At some point, and for no reason I guess, I happened to glance at you when Bill Murray finally kissed his "producer" with all of his heart. When I looked at you, I saw you move your hands slowly, only an inch maybe, to the front, as if to hold someone just a little closer to share a kiss. Your face was so beautiful, it was lit up with a fire only Pele could be blamed for. You radiated a softness that even those furry sweet scented "mittens" of yours could not capture.

I felt something at that moment. Nothing and everything. I just felt. To feel, the act of feeling, letting me "feel" was what you inspired me to do (or to let happen to be more precise).

So yes, Th, th, th, th, th, thea, I also enjoyed Ground Hogs day... but forever more, the sunny and cher song "I got you babe" will carry a carry a deeper meaning than before ;)

Nice analogy, Michel. If I remember that evening correctly, I was experiencing a phenomenon some call ecstasy maybe, or rushing. Remember how you felt at the first theethery thathery soft touch of those fur gloves? That woooo!! that electric jolt of softness your senses are overwhelmed with, especially if you don't see the fluffy fur coming at you, and suddenly poof, it's puffing at your hands and poofing against your forehead and face. Well, imagine if you suddenly felt that all over your body, in and out, through and through, on every surface of your skin? What would you call that feeling? That's what I was experiencing when I heard that kiss. There are many advantages to seeing, and some to not. The lack of sight that sometimes makes me feel cut off from my fellow beings also blesses me with "fur rushes." Because I could not see two separate beings on the screen sharing a kiss, the audio was accompanied for me by a tactile sensation of a kiss, followed by a delicious emotion I call a "fur rush." Aloha, and as many fur rushes as you can stand.

Met the twins again last night in an NLD. One of them said he was dying, Kalani, I think. Their voices are as identical as is possible for two such people. I woke with a determination to correct what I see as a flaw in my story by going lucid, or by just not counting this NLD as part of the story. I'd be interested in any feedback. If someone you created and loved told you in an NLD they were dying, how would you handle this in your next LD? Thea

Thea:

If someone I created and loved told me in an NLD they were dying, the next time I was lucid I would bring them into the dream and ask them, simply, "Why?" I know that might sound simplistic but the answer, should one come, might be truly enlightening, or invigorating.

Try not to correct the 'flaw' directly. Sometimes, after the puzzle is solved, what appeared to be an error in your design is exactly what you wanted in the first place.

Oh, and don't ask "how?" by accident, or expect those kind of details. You might not like what you hear.

...just a thought.

Peter

Peter, as to "how", I had the impression it was a terminal disease. I'll take your suggestion, and see what comes of it. Amazing how attached we get to our characters, sometimes, isn't it? I think if I had a fight with one of the twins in an NLD, it would bode ill for my whole day. I love those two. Heheheh. Weird, huh?

Dearest Dream Seashore chimpan-zzzzzzzzz's

While cutting logs last night; I had my second lucid in the sky with diamonds.

Although this was of the different kind. I was involved in a presentation to a new client, one which I have completed today, and I was wearing the very outfit I had on the day I left Kalani. What a "BEAUTIFUL" coincidence, NOT. I didn't become lucid at first, but was feeling very anxious about my uncomfortable situation. Rather casual attire for such a significant circumstance. I told myself I would never do such a thing, and I must be dreaming. I did a reality check using some text, and it did in fact change. The bummer about the situation was that I felt so uncomfortable; that I tried to wake myself to eliminate the stress, and truly prove this was just a dream.. I did in fact wake up, and told myself I would never do that again.

Regarding the outfit I was wearing; speaks much more about the new attitude I am wearing these days. I think the best part about Kalani was being together with so many open minds, and open hearts. I broke down a lot of walls, which opened up a lot of worlds, and I have the outfit to prove it.

On a lighter note ,just before the presentation I was standing on the side walk, and a man driving a forklift stopped and got out. Just as he stepped out; his dog, a very big light brown blood hound stood up and drove the forklift down the street. Hilarious!

Party on See Monkeys', oops I mean beach monkeys.

( : myles : )

My irresistible dream companions,

Everyone is describing the group energy so eloquently. I have nothing to add. Except to Thea's "and now separation is like being apart from the beloved. Now we're individuals in our own corners" - I don't feel so separate....

I know I said I would leave off incubating group dreams but I couldn't resist setting my intention last night to dream again "for the benefit of all sentient beings, especially Kalani dreamers" - just because I so like the dreams that result. In 4 hours' sleep in the cab of my work truck (between capturing and radio-marking sage grouse on their night roosts and counting them on their morning strutting grounds)I dreamed this, nonlucidly:

I was foraging for food in trash piles, trash cans, dumpsters, and in every one I found right on top an abundance of sliced fresh fruit - Kalani-like, I thought even in the dream - bright cantaloupes, pineapple - sweet, ripe, juicy, fresh and clean. A homeless person of ambiguous gender, stringy and street-hardened and a little scary to me, also foraging, worked over toward me and asked for food or money, claiming to have nothing to eat. I pointed out that he/she was gathering exactly the same abundance as I. But wanting to give something, I offered him/her a place to sleep - I didn't own the porch I'd been sleeping on either, but thought there was plenty of room for everyone.

I saw this as having to do with those who asked me to find them in dreams and help them "go lucid" - it's not mine to give; we're all foraging and finding the same good stuff, with plenty for everyone. (The person being scary - I think that was just a compassion test for me.)

After getting up at first light and counting grouse I went back to sleep for a couple more hours. I got lucid somewhere in there but was so sleepy and having so much fun, I didn't wake for recall. All I remember for sure is thinking that a rhythmic, musical sound I was hearing repeated in the dream was likely inspired by my own snoring!

Besides I had something more to dream. Here I go contradicting the next thing I said I wouldn't do - post a dream involving an individual dreamer - 'cause this is about another of Naomi's fine qualities and it's just too good a pun not to share.

Naomi was holding an object of art that she cherished, and the voice of an unseen man asked her permission to describe some of the symbolism he saw in it. When she assented he said that while she had been focusing on X as a strong female symbol, she might also do well to look at Y, the shape of which represents growth, upward movement and branching out. He said there were many examples of Y on her work of art. I saw that indeed there was a pattern of lines intersecting at angles, like an evolutionary biologist's tree-like clade diagram, which could be seen as any number of superimposed, overlapping and ever-branching Y's. Naomi hugged it to herself and went to her room to think this over.

I woke immediately and saw the work of art as a richly explored life with its many branching paths. Hoping to go back to sleep, I thought of the briefest way to denote this dream for memory and finally got the pun when I picked up my pen to write, "Naomi's Y's"!

And so are we all,

love, Joy

(p.s. I was also thinking even while the dream was going on that X as a female symbol could relate to the X chromosome and so Y would be male, but this didn't seem to be the point, although when the voice mentioned X I saw one that looked rather chromosome-like in retrospect, narrow and with a luminous reddish centromere)

Joy, I feel so safe and loved in your dream world that seeing myself revealed there doesn't phase me one bit. I'm only left feeling awed at the dream Y'sdom. I finished reading Patricia Garfield's Pathway to Ecstacy just before dream camp. In it she talks about her recurring dream character, a woman with antlers, which Garfield calls the branching woman, to her a symbol of branching out and growth. She likens her to ancient horned goddesses of fertility and nurturance like the Egyptian Isis and even Pele with her tresses flaming upwards. Yes, my life has had quite a lot of branchings, some lovely and others quite gnarly, and I do feel that I'm in a period of budding now, though I'm having problems with birds' nests cluttering my space. Being a fellow biologist, I can relate to all the thoughts on X and Y, - evolutionary charts, genetics, etc. Since I've been reading A Beautiful Mind, I've also been thinking about the mathematical X, the unknown, the solution to the problem, the typical object of my search, the "what?". Maybe, as the man says, I might do well to also focus on the Y. And yes, hugging it to myself and going to my room to think it over is exactly what, (being a grasping TGIF personality type,) I would do. Your dream knows me well. Then there's the YMCA type Y. I used to teach yoga there for 6 years, and many years ago taught a short-lived bellydance class. Recently I was thinking I'd like to teach a gentle dance class there. I'm falling asleep. Off to dream, maybe to meet, Naomi

PS Thanks to your zzzzz's, Myles, I finally got the sawing dream logs message. What a missed dream sign! I feel so un-Y's. Just scrolled to your "how's" and "why's", Thea and Peter. If it were my dream, I would see death as letting go of a part of me I didn't need any more in order that a new aspect could grow. (that word "growth" again.)

I'm rather awed too (and rather odd, but everyone knows that). I can't claim "my" dreams as mine - they are more Y's than I.

X's, Y's and Zzzzz's,

Joy

Oh no, I'm in trouble. If I thought Joy was the most normal person I knew and she thinks she's odd, what does that make me, odder?

I had one of my first dreams last night since camp (I had been staying up nights and sleeping days). In my NLD I remember being in a pick up truck while an unknown "friend" was washing the truck. All of a sudden we are driving down a country road or even in a country field. I looked over at my friend and said "hey, the scenery just changed like in a dream..." he looked at me with eyes saying -like you did not know already-.

I'm rusty! I can't imagine not going lucid there. I knew I was dreaming but did not let myself know that I knew ;) I'll be ready next time.

After contemplating the X + Y = Zzzzzth'th'th'th puzzle last night, I was finally rewarded with a lucid dream. It started out in a non-ld in which I was walking down a street fending off dinosaurs and tank-like towing trucks with karate chops (since I didn't notice anything dreamlike there, I feel I must relinquish any prior claim to being Y's). It was only when I was crossing the street and noticed the guy ahead of me had his hair combed a bit too neatly that I became lucid. I started floating on my back up in the air and through a hole in the clouds (thanks, Michel, for providing the setting). I rose up very high, and started getting scared until I remembered that Patricia Garfield liked flying beyond the earth's atmosphere. It was kind of like the Powers of Ten movie. At some point I started falling back down and was afraid, but reminded myself that Garfield liked to hurl herself down to earth from outer space at great speeds with no ill effects. All along I had been rubbing my hands together to maintain lucidity, but while I was falling I decided to spin and see if I could go someplace else, but then saw I had no body to spin and started feeling my body in bed waking up. I tried rubbing hands again but it was too late, I was awake.

You TGIF, I love it! Your choice of dream signs is hilarious.

I advocate a definition of Ysdom that includes frequently accepting magic without question.

Joy

Accepting magic is easy for me, but I am curious about YSdom. What is it?

Wise and magical Thea,

I was wondering if our puns would make any sense translated to voice! Okay, let's see if I can explain this non-visually: It starts a few posts back. I dream that a symbol important to Naomi is the letter Y, representing upward growth and branching out, and I observe several of these. I go to make a note of the dream, thus: "Naomi's Y's" - meaning, several examples of the letter Y belonging to Naomi - and that's when I realize that, spoken, it comes out the same as "Naomi's wise" - meaning, Naomi is wise. So in Naomi's response she writes of Ysdom, meaning "Wisdom."

How did I do? Did that work? What does your voice software do when it encounters an unfamiliar construction like Ysdom?

Joy

When JFW encounters a word it has no clue about it does its best. It pronounced Ysdom as is dom. I got the pun about the Y's and wise no problem. I just didn't get the Ysdom part. I didn't associate the pun of Y's and wise with Ysdom. I actually thought it was some Yoga practice. Purring, Thea.

Thank you Thea, for showing us another Y, for Yoga and the isdom that connects us all. Naomi

PS Thea, you're purrfect

Happy to report that Saturday night was the first lucid dream I remembered since getting back from Dream Camp. My MILD practice hasn't been as rigorous yet as I'm aiming for but was apparently enough for me to have my first "false MILD":

I had a false awakening, reviewed the dream I'd awakened from, (don't remember what it was), identified places I should have become lucid, concentrated on my intent for my next lucid dream, closed my eyes and surprisingly enough (please read that in a sarcastic tone of voice) I was dreaming. And lucid at that point.

I had fallen asleep that night with the intent to try a tonglen (compassion) practice when I became lucid. But during the false awakening that got translated into setting an intent to "seek the source of light within".

As soon as I closed my eyes I was in empty black space and saw various still, grey, 2-dimensional images appear in succession. The only one I recall was one of a handsome man. I remember thinking "this is boring" as the images shifted, sort of like a slide show. Shortly after that an impossibly bright and beautiful light appeared above and to the right of the images. It was small (maybe as large as 3-4 stars combined, but with the same feeling that it was only small because of the distance from which it was shining) pure white, incredibly bright, and achingly beautiful. After watching it in awe for a time it resolved into a being that seemed a combination of an angel and a butterfly which I watched fly around until I woke up. The being was composed of strands of the same incredibly bright, beautiful white light. Worth waiting for, and I'm fascinated by the way the non-lucid dream portion translated my intent.

Oh, and a big thank you to June for some fun I had in a NLD last night. She had mentioned to me that she often transformed into a bird in dreams, and I'd been thinking on and off about that (since I'd never done it) and last night in the course of running away from something (yes, I wish I'd become lucid and not fled but it was still a really fun dream with lots of comic book elements) I dove through a wall, turned myself into a hawk and flew away in that form for a while. Had some trouble controlling the flight at first but it soon smoothed out and swooping was really fun. I think part of the reason I don't become lucid in comic book inspired dreams is that I'm usually having so much fun in them.

Thea: re what to say to a dream character who's says he's dying what an interesting question. I like Peter's suggestion of 'Why?' a lot. Much more than most of the ideas I considered such as explaining that they don't have to die or saying that they can still be alive in another dream. The other suggestion that struck me was telling him that it's all right, you'll be with him as long as you can because you love him.

Naomi: thanks for the laugh :-). I love a world view where dinosaurs are perfectly normal and neatly combed hair is a sign that something is strange.

Michel, my dear, in the Land of Odd, how odder are you? Odder enough to be a dream character? I thought so!

Aloha, Keelin

Keelin, are dreams characters permitted to post here?

Aloha, Michel

...Only if they never write the same thing twice ;)

Dear dream junkies

Funny story last night:

I had an argument with a dream character last night about the fact that I was lucid. He told me I could not be lucid ' I wasn't floating.' I didn't become lucid , but I got a hug later from Joy. Thanks Joy, It made me feel much better.

On a more bizarre note:

I tried WILD a few nights ago while I thought I was awake. I only had to close my eyes, and almost instantly felt my body go through paralysis. The next few moments were spent between reality & dreaming as my body was shaking and images like a nightmare before Christmas sped by. I didn't think things were moving quick enough, so I squinted my eyes as if to put things into high gear. A little too much type A I suppose! The feeling went on until I thought it hadn't worked, and my four children woke me up, oops, I have two'& the dream went non-lucid from there. It was totally cool though'Party on Wayne.

Thea:

I must have been thinking about you the other night, because I asked a dream character to cut my head off. I wanted to see what it was like to lose my sight, and I knew it wouldn't hurt since it was in a dream. I did ask the dream character to drive me to the hospital as soon as they did it so we could have my head sewn on. I didn't want to bleed to death and all.

On another funny note:

I had my longest Lucid dream the other night, and because I heard so much about flying'I tried that first. I leaped into the air, and floated for a while inside my kitchen, and then all of a sudden fell into'you guessed it, my SINK!

Michel:

After being in Hawaii; I want to be a See Odder!

Waking Life is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. I believe they are releasing the first week in May.

Lastly:

I looked up Dream in the Word thesaurus, and the antonym is reality'go figure! I looked up reality in the Word thesaurus, and the antonym is idealism',so Dreams are Ideal!

( : smyles : )