Happy Valentine’s Day – I’m excited to share with you this two-part article celebrating the 3^rd anniversary of Conscious Chimera! I’m marking the occasion by delivering an informational piece about practices that have been a part of my life and hold personal meaning for me. While the title of this article is somewhat of an oxymoron, by reading on you will come across several ideas about awakening through sleep. This February 2019 posting is part one. It draws on some of the writings, thoughts and contemplations of Kamini Desai, PhD, Andrew Holecek, PhD, Clare Johnson, PhD, Joseph Dillard, PhD, and myself. Here, in part one, I compare and contrast lucid dreaming, dream yoga, and sleep yoga (yoga nidra). Part two (available in March) will include an interview with Dr. Dillard focusing on Integral Deep Listening (IDL). Hot off the press – enjoy!

Lucid dreaming (dreaming while knowing you are dreaming) is often used for entertainment and pleasure. This learnable skill has become quite popular in the past several years. Many of those new to lucid dreaming are thrilled to learn that they can control their dreams and do what they most desire. Overindulgence in consuming sweets and fatty fast food, racing expensive cars, beating up enemies larger than oneself, having sex with supermodels (or becoming one), you name it, I’ve heard it all. Well, probably not, but those were the top responses I recall from my undergraduate students when teaching psychology courses for ASU. These lucid dream experiences made going to sleep exciting for them. To each semester’s half-dozen or so lucid dreamers, I would say, “Wow, that’s something.” It was something, as I didn’t expect to meet so many who attended to their dream lives. Then I would ask the experienced students about less materialistic matters: Had they ever talked to a deity or wise person, transported themselves to a sacred site, or even ask to be shown what death is like, or how to prepare for it? The responses were mostly blank stares, contorted faces, including a few scratching their heads as they muttered “nope.” I left it at that.

What one does in the dream state affects both body and brain. You can train your physical body by what you do in the dream state. We know this from countless scientific studies. Training in singing, art, athletics, and solving mathematical puzzles are some examples of purposeful, induced lucid dream activities practiced in order to improve waking life experience or events. I’m sure it’s clear that the experience of dreaming lucidly can lead to self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment (remember my students?). In addition, trauma survivors and military veterans have been taught to lucid dream for therapeutic purposes, as a way to alleviate PTSD symptoms. What a powerful modality to support healing! The wonders of lucid dreaming have impact and purpose, sometimes lasting a lifetime, yet remains relatively secular and focused on the self among contemporary Westerners.

In her 2017 book, Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming: A Comprehensive Guide to Promote Creativity, Overcome Sleep Disturbances and Enhance Health and Wellness, Johnson writes, “Lucid dreaming does not always involve deliberate dream control.” Nor must it involve manipulation. We can remain open when lucid, and go with the flow. Holecek (2016), in his book, Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep, describes ‘witnessing’ dreams as a “type of lucid dream where you prefer not to engage in the dream. You’re lucid, but you prefer to just watch what unfolds without changing anything.”

“Dream yoga picks up where lucid dreaming leaves off,” says Holecek (2016). Self-transcendence is what dream yoga is all about. It is a spiritual practice, essentially. In Buddhist and Hindu worldviews there is the concept of life as maya, a dream, viewing life as illusory. Maya is Sanskrit for illusion. Dream yoga’s purpose is to wake us up out of the dream/illusion. As one’s practice grows and develops, worldly things may start to lose their power, and waking and dream worlds come to be viewed as equally real or unreal.

For the practice of dream yoga, we use our body as a tool, or vehicle, for growth. Consistency in practice matters, which is the case for any discipline. Holecek’s (2016) book offers chapters on both Western and Eastern lucid dream induction techniques, thus reminding us that we can become our own instructor, teaching ourselves how to do this stuff! My teachers taught a combination of both Western and Eastern induction techniques for the purpose of conscious dreaming, which I began practicing regularly. As a deeply curious student, I wanted to engage with my dreaming world in new ways. After a few months of dedication to the set of daily exercises, I met my initial goal. Over-zealous, I added more techniques to my daily routine and set new goals. On one hand, I began gaining increasing levels of competence. On the other hand, like other spiritual or health-based practices in my life, I became inconsistent and side tracked. Later, realizing that I had lost time, I set lofty goals, which led to feeling frustrated and pressured. Disillusioned, I gave up for a time. This happens to some of us – it can be considered normal human activity. The moral of the story is to monitor the ego, and to be gentle and kind to oneself while making daily commitments, and not set deadlines or huge goals that are in opposition to a preferred long-range lifestyle choice.

As we develop along our psychospiritual path, we may want to bring a waking life practice into the dream state. When dreaming lucidly, try engaging in a form of meditation. What happens? Holecek (2016) claims that “the meditation you accomplish in the dream state is up to 9 times more effective and more transformative than what you do in the waking state.” So, why not? Even in fully lucid dream states, where we have control and clear decision-making capacity (such as the decision to meditate), we may come into contact with the unexpected. For example, in most dreams (even lucid ones) people often run away from their disowned aspects – think powerful, hideous monsters. “Dreams are truth-tellers,” writes Holecek, in his article The Art of Lucid Dreaming published in Conscious Lifestyle Magazine. He adds, “Dream yoga will show you a great deal about who you are, and where you stand…” In dream yoga, integration of our unwanted, split-off parts is one way to go. In this example, we turn toward (a monster, in this case), instead of away. At the very least, we do not resist. By doing so we can gain awareness, illumination and transformation through acceptance. Some dreamers turn toward the scary creature and ask a question. “What do you represent?” or “What do you need?” are examples. Others simply remain with the experience. By clearing out the cobwebs, or moving deeper into the monster’s lair, we have an opportunity to tap into a deeper core, a greater awareness.

Due to the conscious awareness in this dream state, which becomes more common with practice, we can do much more, such as fly, manipulate the body, transform into an animal, converse with a deity, pass through seemingly solid objects, practice tai chi or qi gong, meditate, and more. As one moves along the dream yoga path, exercising greater levels of spiritual discipline is evermore encouraged, and this is where deeper meditation practices come into the picture. This is another area where I struggle and stir. Once the fun has been had, the simple curiosities expunged, and the egoic explorations complete, the mind is often pulled toward more of the same. This pattern is a way for me to see my own inner distractions, as well as face the part of me that fears thinning the self, not wanting to wake up from the perpetual dream called life (a serious question!). With further growth, trust, gentle practice and dedication, plus a little patience, this too shall pass.

Nidra means sleep in Sanskrit. Johnson (2017), who teaches yoga nidra, explains that “the experienced yoga nidra practitioner can carry this conscious awareness right through the sleep cycle and effectively stay lucid all night long while the body sleeps.” This is true even during the deepest state of sleep. What is so unique is that yoga nidra (aka sleep yoga) is associated with delta brainwaves similar to states of coma or under anesthesia. Such states are restorative and healing for the physical body. When in this deep meditative space, one disidentifies – there is no separate “I” in that all personal identification diminishes. This is a reason that this practice is considered a “yoga” – a psychospiritual discipline of awakening – as it takes the practitioner to places typically only experienced by advanced meditators. In addition to his many books, Dillard produces two highly informative websites on the topics discussed in this article: dreamyoga.com and integraldeeplistening.com. On lucid deep sleep, Dillard writes, “All of us think that we are awake, but few of us are. Those who are most likely to be most awake, and therefore have the most credibility regarding how to wake up out of our self-created life dream, are those who can stay awake while in the deep sleep state. Can you?”

In her 2017 book, Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep, Desai points to the research demonstrating the increased delta activity, which is “associated with empathy, compassion, intuition and spirituality,” among experienced meditators and even monks. The point of sleep yoga is to train oneself to access such states consciously so as to bring them back to waking consciousness! Now one may experience states of ‘higher consciousness’ during lucid dreaming – this is often reported. However, the yoga nidra practitioner’s focus is of cultivation and deliverance of what I understand to be transpersonal growth, and virtue in my opinion. The mission is to train the consciousness to be awake 24/7. This is no easy task – few have achieved such mastery and enlightenment.

There are a million and one ways to lose concentration and focus. After all, the mind likes to wander and stay busy. This is referred to as monkey mind in Buddhism. With consistent practice though, there is improvement – the monkey can be tamed! We have a lifetime (and possibly many more) to continue working at it. Those with dedication to such practices can, and do, advance along the path with steady pacing and persistence, all the while gaining increased clarity, intuition, empathy, compassion, self-decentralization, and more. Those that have mastered the yogas of dream and sleep are considered some of the enlightened beings that have walked this earth throughout history.

Since I began on, for me, the seemingly interwoven path of meditation, conscious dreamwork, and yoga over a decade-and-a-half ago learning the lessons has not been perfect, nor linear, yet it has been necessary to pick myself up and return to the practices time and time again when motivation declines and distractions arise. I have found reward, not only in the benefits mentioned earlier, but also by enhanced creativity, patience, humor and hope. And during these times, we know how we can all use more of that!

Please click FOLLOW so that you will be alerted when Conscious Chimera releases part two of this report. No matter where you are on this path, I say to you “All the strength”…and “Namaste.”

Kim

Conscious Chimera’s October 2018 article is a replication of the paper I presented at IASD’s Psiber Dreaming Concerence, which is held online every fall. The conference ended yesterday, so today I am sharing my presentation with you, fellow dreamers.

Extraordinary Announcing Dreams by Kimberly R. Mascaro, PhD

       This presentation offers a platform to explore the announcing dream and extraordinary dream intersection. First, I will introduce notions of the announcing dream, then, move into extraordinary dream conceptualization. After, I will provide six announcing dream reports that appear to fit into an extraordinary realm. This paper will culminate in a discussion of these phenomena.

Announcing dreams, which take place before conception or birth, first surfaced in Ian Stevenson’s reincarnation literature. Someone who is “connected with the (future) subject has a dream in which a deceased person appears to the dreamer and indicates his wish or intention to reincarnate” (Stevenson, 2001, p. 99). While family and community members may have this kind of dream, it is most often a woman who is married and able to be a “mother for the next incarnation of the person who is to be born” (Stevenson, 2001, p. 99). According to Stevenson, announcing dreams are commonly reported among the Burmese, the Aveli of Turkey, people across India, and the Tlingit (An Alaskan Native American group) and other peoples of northwestern North America. In my 2013 doctoral dissertation (Mascaro, 2013), and subsequent publications (Mascaro, 2018), I suggest broadening the concept of an announcing dream to include modern-day, secular dreamers existing outside of the reincarnation-based cultural belief systems. If an announcing dream is simply thought of as a visual, tactile or auditory pre-birth communication, then the prospect for reincarnation would not necessarily be the focal point of this phenomenon. Furthermore, an announcing dream moves beyond a mundane, fantasy-like baby dream. Instead it is often a unique, high-sensory dream perception resulting in the dreamer holding a belief that genuine communication has taken place with the future child (Mascaro, 2018). Today, with access to advanced and fast medical care in the contemporary West, some dreamers have a pregnancy confirmed prior to an announcing dream, while, for others, it is the announcing dream itself that confirms the pregnancy.

Announcing dreams, in general, may be considered extraordinary to some extent. But what is it that makes a dream truly extraordinary? According to some of today’s researchers, scholars, and theorists, extraordinary dream characteristics and features vary. For instance, an extraordinary dream may be an especially vivid, intense, unforgettable dream (possibly easily recalled after decades pass). Yet, an extraordinary dream may also be of a rare, unusual quality, not easily explained, be indicative of telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, or extend beyond ordinary thinking. The latter notion moves us beyond the well-known continuity hypothesis. After analyzing more than 50,000 dreams from different nations, Hall and Nordby (1972) formulated the continuity hypothesis. Suggesting that dreams reflect a person’s life in the waking state, Hall and Nordby (1972) claim, “Dreams are continuous with waking life; the world of dreaming and the world of waking are one” (p. 104). The continuity hypothesis makes sense given so many pregnancy dream reports reflecting breastfeeding struggles, the impulse to protect a baby from harm, babies being born with deformities, or concerns with the behavior of birth attendants. After all, pregnancy brings about a major life transition, filled with psychological stressors. Now, if we are to move beyond the continuity hypothesis when considering what makes a dream extraordinary, then the proposal that discontinuity be considered (suggested by Richard Russo in his presentation at the June 2018, 35^th annual IASD conference), sits well alongside some of the dream reports I collected. Examine the following six reports (all reports have been paraphrased and condensed for brevity):

Dreamer A: In her first trimester, of her first pregnancy, the dreamer dreamt of a baby girl. The infant, visually appearing to be about eight months old, exclaimed, “I’m not your baby.” Shortly after this abrupt dream, the dreamer miscarried. Later that same year, another dream occurred with a slightly younger looking male infant visually appearing and stating, “I’m your baby and my name is Travis.” This second dream was as abrupt and as clear as the first, as well as convincing. She then shared the dream sequences with her husband. The dreamer birthed a male child the following year.

Dreamer B: Not yet a mother, the dreamer had experienced many challenges with becoming pregnant over the past year. She prayed and prayed for a baby girl. While taking a break from it all, the dreamer dreamt of a male baby, huge – adult size, leaning on her bed, kneeling on the floor. The dreamer saw this extra large baby boy watching her and her husband sleep. As the dreamer arose to take a closer look, he said, “I’m coming.” The dreamer conceived about a month or so following the dream, and was in such disbelief that medical confirmation was necessary. She birthed a male child the following year.

Dreamer C: While in an unfulfilling, volatile relationship, and in the first month or two of pregnancy, the dreamer was contemplating whether to continue with it. During that first trimester, she dreamt of sitting with a little boy. The sight of him prompted lucidity. The boy would not answer her when she asked if he was her baby, instead he told her that he would like to be named Peter. The, now lucid, dreamer told him NO. The dreamer said that she felt like “this was a person speaking to me.” A few months later, the boy reappeared in dream, sitting next to her, calming her without words. She knew he was going to stick around. When she gave birth to a male newborn some months later, she did not name him Peter, but believed that his spirit came to her early on to keep her “on track.”

Dreamer D: At 15 weeks pregnant, the dreamer (experienced with inducing dream lucidity and provoking out-of-body experiences), reported an OBE by which she floated up toward the ceiling above her sleeping body. Having had a plan to connect with the fetus she was carrying, but being unsure how to do so, she focused on her belly, calling out “Baby, Baby, Baby.” At that moment she felt it move – kicking and twisting, perceiving this to be a response. Then, she awoke, unable to feel that physical movement. The next day at the check-up, an ultrasound was performed showing an active fetus moving about. The dreamer felt affirmed which led her to contemplate future waking-state plans to connect with her baby when consciously dreaming next.

Dreamer E: From conception to the third trimester, the dreamer had frequent interactive dreams with a male child. In the dream, her and the boy would play baby-like games – making funny faces back-and-forth; staring eye-to-eye – all very positive, she said. The dreamer was thrilled when ultrasound confirmed that the baby she was carrying was male. For the dreamer, this further affirmed the relationship that had been developing between her and her child before the birth. The experience also helped the dreamer believe that she would be a good mother even though she was unprepared and the pregnancy was an unplanned one.

Dreamer F: Upon discovering she was one month pregnant, scared and confused, the dreamer considered termination. The dreamer incubated a dream at that time asking for advice on how to proceed. In the dream she was holding a baby girl she believed to be the one she was carrying, feeling great amounts of love. The dreamer said that this baby looked at her, with blue eyes similar to her partner’s eyes, and conveyed to her (“telepathically”) that her name is Sophia. Upon awakening, the dreamer reflected on the realness and vividness of the dream, and how Sophia was not a name she would have chosen. The dream stayed with her for days – she felt as if she had been directly spoken to by a “wise being.”

Given these six ‘announcing’ dreams, elements arise suggesting ordinary thinking and showing support for the continuity hypotheses. It is not surprising that those anxious with unplanned pregnancies produce dreams of babies. At the same time, there are nonordinary aspects of each of these six dreams placing them in the extraordinary realm. All dreamers found these dreams to be memorable, vivid, and rare, in that they did not occur outside of pregnancy or the time shortly before conception. Four dreamers were correct in their predictions of the fetal sex. Dreamer D’s dream did not note a fetal sex. Dreamer F did not include medical confirmation of the fetal sex in her report. In addition, Dreamer F said she came to learn the name through a telepathic sense. Clairvoyance may be considered an aspect of Dreamer D’s experience.

In conclusion, we have so much more to learn about these phenomena – extraordinary dreams and announcing dreams. Exploring how the two types of dreams intersect can bring forth greater understanding. After all, these are the nocturnal experiences that carry great meaning for so many individuals and families, and live on, in the mind, sometimes for a lifetime.

References

Hall, C. S., & Nordby, V. J. (1972). The individual and his dreams. New York, NY: Signet.

Mascaro, K. R. (2018). Extraordinary dreams: Visions, announcements and premonitions across time and place. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Stevenson, I. (2001). Children who remember previous lives: A question of reincarnation. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.

I hope you enjoyed this paper,

Kim