Join me tomorrow evening at the Raven’s Wing on Grand Ave. in Oakland for this free event! Every third Wednesday of the month, we come together to explore the world of dreams. Each week is structured differently, sometimes lecture, discussion, activity, or a blend of all three. If you would like to suggest a particular dream-related topic for the evening, contact me. Hope to see you there!
Armor. It’s not a word I often hear, so I was a little surprised to dream of such a concept. Armor can be thought of as a protective layer intended to deflect or diffuse damaging forces. The phrase, a knight in shining armor evokes a strong image, yet armor can be many things. Surely, it can be more than a physical object. And ‘damaging forces’ entail more than swords or bullets. Armor, in a psychological sense, acts as a coping mechanism to protect from emotional pain.
While the word ‘armor’ is not part of my everyday vocabulary, the act of armoring is a frequent experience for most of us. It’s the way our unconscious distorts the body. It happens unconsciously. When do we, as people, armor ourselves? Armoring can take place when suppressing emotion, holding in truths, and inhibiting ourselves in various ways, to start. Armoring happens when our authentic self is not permissible or allowed.
Could long-term armoring lead to disease and illness? Some would say yes, as emotional experience has a relationship with physiology. As a result of armoring, we may encounter physical and physiological symptoms. Considering that what happens internally is expressed externally, in our posture, and musculature, we may become aware of a hunched back, tight jaw muscles, or an overall stiffness, for example. The impact of armoring can be invisible as well, such as when we do not allow a full exhale to happen. It’s good to know that releasing years of armoring is possible. These insights and ideas come from Wilhelm Reich and the field of somatic psychology. Somatic psychology gives great attention to the embodied self. Body-oriented therapies are shown to help greatly in this area.
Like body-oriented therapies, dreamwork also provides an opportunity to attend to one’s embodied self. In California, many licensed psychologists and psychotherapists are experienced dreamworkers, offering individual and group dreamwork sessions. There are various types of dreamwork – Gestalt dreamwork is one example. Through dreams, we can see ourselves in different ways. Dreams are said to reflect many things, such as unconscious processes, adaptation, attention needed in some aspect of the waking physical life, and much more. Dreams can be a source of guidance and even provide concrete information. Dreams can also reveal aspects of our authentic self. A dream may even prompt one to schedule an appointment with physician or a therapist. While dreamwork can take various forms, one way to begin (after recording the dream) is to focus on the imagery. Often there is a central image. Stay with the image and give it life in order to understand it at deeper levels. As an artist, I prefer to draw or paint my dreams. Others act out the dream in dream-like theater. With lucid dreaming, we can ask the dream to bring a healing figure to assist us, or to show us how to heal ourselves. These are just some of the possibilities.
Below, I’ll share a portion of one of my recent dreams and the evolving process that, for me, followed naturally. In the first part of my dream,
Damaging forces abound. An adolescent girl (who may represent one aspect of myself) is being protected by a small group of caring adults, both male and female. The adults work at the girl’s group home or residential treatment center. We are outdoors, in town somewhere, under the bright sun. In particular, one of the adult females (who I understand to be my primary self), is very concerned and protective of the girl. She gently places her arm around the girl, kissing her on the forehead with wet eyes, as the girl removes her body armor (in the form of a metal body suit, somewhat similar to chain mail).
In the dream state, I experienced this scenario with the body armor as the strong central image, leading me to pay attention to my own armoring, its potential health impact, and to begin to seek solutions. As part of my own dreamwork process, I felt compelled to 
recreate the metal body suit, which I did by knitting with some thin wire. Not easy! Later, I represented the image in a painting (shown here). This is just the beginning of re-establishing my relationship with armor – a concept I had set aside, for the most part, since graduate school.
There is no end to this story. Armor must first be known, even allied, before it can be shed. And in order to shed, one must create a safe environment (perhaps with a therapist) before the armor will even budge. If we allow it, we can see truth with our dream ‘eyes.’ Dreams have a way of making the unconscious, conscious. Dreamwork acknowledges that consciousness and the authentic self continue to develop. Evolving interpretations are at play.
May your dreams be your medicine,
Kim
*I’d like to thank Dr. Jennifer Tantia of New York for her consultation with this article. She can be reached at http://www.soma-psyche.com
As the warmer months are wrapping up, and the cold weather approaches, we find ourselves spending more and more time indoors. During the fall and winter seasons, we may spend much of our leisure time reading by a cozy fire, or listening to music under a warm blanket. In such a comfortable environment, it’s easy to drift off to sleep, even if only for a few minutes. In this polyphasic space, dreams are sprinkled over the course of the day or evening. For many people, all it takes is one extraordinary dream to spark a life-long interest in dreaming. Whether that first extraordinary dream is a lucid one, a highly memorable, vivid dream, or one with lasting impact, there is a desire to understand and experience more. For a few, vivid dreams and even lucid dreams are the norm, although, this is not the case for the majority of the population who typically recall mundane, fragmented dreams. On average, I experience one or two extraordinary dreams a month since I had a disciplined practice in the past. Some dreamers, however, report an extraordinary dream each week, while others report only a few each year. No matter one’s experience, dreamtime can be enhanced in several ways. For this month (October), Conscious Chimera is dedicated to offering tips for enhancing dreamtime. For questions or comments regarding the list below, please post a comment here or send me an email. I hope to hear from you soon!
*Aroma
-Mugwart: According to Victoria H. Edwards, author of The Aromatherapy Companion, “smelling mugwart before retiring” may assist with dream recall. Edwards even suggests hanging some to dry near your bed.
-Lavendar: Well-known for its calming effect, smelling lavender essential oil right before naptime or bedtime can help us relax. A relaxed state is ideal because an anxious or racing mind can affect dreams.
-Neroli & Sandalwood: Using these essential oils in combination is said to stimulate extraordinary dreams. Rub a few drops on the forehead, or add the oils to a spray bottle with distilled water to use as a pillow mist.
*Meditation & Breathwork
-Track the breath, every inhalation and exhalation. To bring about a sense of peace and calm, follow each in-breath and out-breath with focused attention. After a few minutes of ding so, say out loud, “It’s easy to remember my dreams.” Setting an intention with mindful breathing works wonders.
*Deep relaxation/Hypnosis
-A way to relax the body entirely to prepare for dreamtime is to apply ‘progressive relaxation.’ This technique involves relaxing each muscle group, one by one. Move from the head down to the feet, or from the feet up to the head – either direction works just fine. Once the process is complete say out loud, “I recall my dreams with ease, and I notice how vivid they are,” or a similar statement five or more times. The idea here, is to move into a very relaxed, suggestive state so that you can ‘program’ your mind to recall dreams as you drift off.
*Crystals/Gems
-Amethyst: Tonight I’ll be sleeping with a quality piece of amethyst! Why? It’s known to support dream recall.
-Clear Quartz: Amplify dream imagery by keeping a clear quartz crystal under your pillow. Sometimes, I like to carry mine with me all day as well.
Last but not least, leave a pen and notepad nearby so every dream, regardless of length, can be recorded as soon as you awaken. It is important to log all details without judgment. This practice along can help with dream recall, and having a record of your dreams is also necessary for tracking precognitive elements (aka premonitions).
Wishing you a pleasant fall season,
Kim
Have you ever had a dream, and in that dream suddenly realized that you were dreaming? If so, maybe that simple realization alone woke you up. Or, maybe you realized that you could do anything you wanted because you were in a dream. Perhaps, you’ve experienced something a little different – that being, you maintained awareness while falling asleep and immediately found yourself in a dream-like state, one in which you could control in any way you like…one in which you could have a valuable question about life answered. Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you are not alone. In fact, you are just like thousands upon thousands of others. Such experiences have been reported for centuries all across the globe.
There is debate over whether lucid dreams (LD) and out-of-body experiences (OBEs), sometimes referred to as lucid projections and several other names, are essentially the same or similar. While much of the Western literature I’ve read makes a distinction 
between the two, and describes the features marking their differences, it’s easy to understand how some groups and societies do not separate these phenomena. Numerous anthropological reports from all over the world highlight the widely held belief that the psyche moves about, or travels, while the body sleeps. This takes place, they say, whether we remember it or not, and we may be partially, incompletely, or completely aware during the occurrence itself. This notion of one’s psyche leaving the physical body and moving about does not sit well for a lot of secular individuals, as it implies the existence of something spiritual. That very idea may be behind such proposed distinctions. No matter what we believe to be taking place, or where we find ourselves in this debate, people of all ages report unique experiences that scientists are attempting to explain.
Until 2005, I had few unprovoked or incubated anomalous nocturnal experiences. The occurrences I can recall were unwanted and occurred spontaneously during the night hours. In fact, for the first 30-something years of my life, I wasn’t sure what had happened. To this day, I specifically remember two somewhat frightening experiences that I now recognize to have likely been lucid projections or OBEs. Still, some would prefer to categorize them as lucid dreams, and that is just fine too. Both experiences took place at night while lying in unfamiliar beds. The first took place during a family vacation in Bishop, California when I was eight years old. The second anomalous experience I can still recall happened when I was about 20 years old while visiting someone in Bend, Oregon. Not only do children report such experiences, but adults have claimed that experiences like these took place while they were children or during adolescence. Like so many others, I had not had past discussions or debate with others who had these experiences, nor knowledge of scholarly books or articles – basically, I knew little, if anything, on the topic. During those times, I had no clue as to what might have had occurred. A lot has changed from then until now. In my early and mid 30s, after some practical skill development and training, however, I had several provoked/planned OBEs, LDs, and highly vivid dreams and tended to view them as the same phenomenon…like shades of grey.
More recently, with additional first-hand experiences, and increasing education on these topics, I’ve come to understand further the OBE and LD distinction. OBEs are called by various names depending on one’s orientation (soul flight, soul travel, lucid projections, unfolding, astral travel, astral projection, spirit-walking, or dream visions). OBEs, or lucid projections, have been reported to occur at least once in one’s lifetime for about 10%-20% of the population, but is rarely acknowledged or discussed in contemporary Western culture. Lucid dreaming may be the Western term that is more often used, as it seems more comfortable for that culture. OBEs/lucid projections can be spontaneous, forced, or provoked, and it is possible, although rare, that one has the experience while awake (a family member of mine told me about his experience that, to his surprise, spontaneously took place while he sat in his desk at school). Reports also coincide with near-death experiences. Understandably, such variations can be confusing. The two phenomena, the OBE and LD, share some features, but also have distinctions reported in the literature. Some would say, however, that the level of conscious awareness determines how the experience is labeled. For example, if one maintains an aware, alert mind while the body falls to sleep, they might label it as an OBE. But if one’s mind and body falls asleep, then during sleep, the dream state or R.E.M., they become aware, it would wind up being labeled as a LD, more often than not. Generally speaking, this is how we’ve compartmentalized such phenomena in Western culture. This compartmentalization doesn’t really happen in indigenous societies, as it seems unnecessary and irrelevant because after all, if the soul wanders during sleep, the person’s awareness of what’s taking place may be there from the very beginning or their awareness flows in and out during part of the sleep cycle.
In my early 30s, I worked very hard to provoke an OBE or lucid projection, as well as a LD. I practiced a variety of concentration-based meditations for months, usually dedicating over an hour a day to the practices. It paid off with time, effort and practice, and even trail and error. Having had no success at night, even after dozens of attempts, I decided to dedicate one sunny weekend morning to pursue an experience. That morning after waking up, I did a series of exercises in bed – concentration on the heart, vowel mantras, and visualization of a place – all taught to me, at that time, by experienced instructors of GnosticWeb (a group offering free courses on these topics). That morning included a few hours of unsuccessful attempts, probably because I really wasn’t sure what was about to take place and likely gave up too quickly. All of this occurred with some degree of frustration, before I actually succeeded. In fact, I recall telling myself, that I would try ‘one more time’ before ‘giving up’ for the day. So I pushed forward, lying in bed, trying to fall asleep while I kept my mind awake – quite the disciplined act. The initial experience of maintaining this level of awareness was extremely interesting to say the least, especially due to new and unfamiliar sensations. My heartbeat became more intense and this intensity was accompanied by a soft buzzing or vibrating sensation. These sensations seemed to gently propel me forward at one point in the experience. I don’t recall hearing any sounds or voices at that moment, which are, among other sensations, often reported by others, according to research done by the International Academy of Consciousness. Basically, I popped up and walked out of bed with the awareness that something was different. To confirm, I did a reality check (which was something I was taught to do and often done during the day) by pulling one of my fingers. I did this right there in my bedroom, as I was certain that something was quite different and suspected that I had projected. My finger stretched like firm putty and became long, then sprung back as I let it go. Well that confirmed it! Next, I walked out of my bedroom, and then realizing walking wasn’t necessary, I hovered about a foot above the floor, floating down the stairs with the awareness that I had accomplished what I set out to experience. I was really checking out the environment I found myself in. A lot looked the same, but laws of gravity obviously did not apply. What took place from there, I consider personal, and meant just for me, so I will keep the rest of the story to myself for now. Anyway, that is how it began for me.
I’m not sure how many minutes went by, but it felt like quite a while. The experience ended when I became uncertain and a little fearful of what I saw, and my vision turned somewhat cloudy (this might imply loss of awareness, according to the IAC, and there are tips on how to re-establish it). I found myself immediately back in my bed and opened my eyes, feeling awe-struck. I then recorded the experience in the dream journal kept by my bed. From that day forward, my world-view began to shift.
While slowly gaining more experience, including how to dream with greater levels of lucidity, I did not focus on differences between the two phenomena. LDs and lucid projections or OBEs seemed to have more in common than
not, and I continue to believe they still do. In the end, it may all come down to varying levels of conscious awareness. Many indigenous cultures do not compartmentalize or make so many concrete categorizations with regard to these phenomena as we do in the West. Still, it helps to be aware of the particular features of these experiences and track them in a journal in order to learn from others, whether it’s shared experiences or research, as well as from ourselves and our own lived experience.
There are researchers in several nations that currently study these unique human experiences in sleep laboratories. For example, the International Academy of Consciousness (IAC) operates a large site in the Alentejo region of Portugal. I had the privilege of visiting the IAC Research Campus a few weeks ago (June 2016) and was given an extensive tour of the facilities, including their impressive laboratories. For more information about what this particular organization has to offer, explore their website at iacworld.org. These days, publications focusing on these extraordinary experiences are on the rise. A simple online search can point to numerous books, websites, and courses. For example, deepluciddreaming.com offers free access to a wonderful book titled Consciousness Beyond the Body, and so much more.
Happy soul-travels,
Kim
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