Lucid Dreaming

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Ben D » Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:16 am

Reading of Aurataur's experience has prompted me to say something about lucid dreams in the context of what and who is having the experience. I understand this is a very important subject for reasons I mention. However I thought I'd offer some background about dreams in general that I've experienced in life. If you are not interested in this then skip over it and go straight to Lucid Dreams.

I kept a dream diary for about 10 years and periodically reaxamined them for dream content, anniversary dates, etc.. I found out many things. for example there were certain themes that repeated themselves on anniversaries and things like that. This was particualrly evident with respect to times in my life where I had been through some heavy drama, emotional pain, etc.. I could just about predict the periods when I was most likely to go through a period of nightmarish sleep, as it generally could be linked to an aniversay date of a life event of memorable proportinons.

When it came to prescient dreams, I was able to be quite good at recognizing during the days events, those situations that had been played out beforehand in my dreams. The dreams I had in the last couple of hours brfore waking were the ones that generally represented events that I would experience during the day. Interestingly, they play backwards. The dream just before waking was the one that would be the first event of the day, and the earlier the dream the later in the day one would expect the event to occur.

On pause for a moment, I don't want to give you the impression that this was happening every day and night, I'm just giving you an idea of the sorts of experiences and observations that occurred over a very long period.

One of the most repetitive prescient dreams that I could know with almost 90% accuracy was going to happen was those involving fishing.There was a period when I went fishing with a friend about twice a week. We both noticed that we often had fish dreams the night before, and since I kept the dream diary, I was able to record the synchronicity of the 'catching a fish' dream, and the actual catching the fish next day. When my friend would come to pick me up, the first thing we shared was,..."did you have any fish dreams?" If neither of us had had any, one could be quite sure that we wouldn't catch any. Otoh, on days when the dreams were full of catching fish, we caught heaps. Most times one could also tell from the dream the type of fish,.. bream, whiting, etc.. from the fish's appearance in the dream, shiny, large, small, etc., If the dream involved as it sometime did a crab, then certainly an actual event happened involving a crab.

Lucid Dreams


But from the mundane prescient dreams to the bizarre lucid dreams of being on a space ship, meeting with aliens, heavenly beings, Buddhas, etc., this is what I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence of being a fair approximation of what is involved.

Interpenetrating the physical body is an astral double (doppelgänger). Our waking state consciousness is self refereneced in time and 3D space as we conceptualize the environmentaal reality presented to our senses, but in lucid dreaming, the astral double actually leaves the physicial and can travel elsewhere in the astral plane and be involved with other entities. Some of these maybe the astral doubles of incarnate people, or they may be astral forms of discarnate entities, or entites who have evolved beyond the human kingdom and have a permanent form on the astral level..

Now when one has a lucid dream involving the astral realm , it is a gross error to imagine on waking that 'you' the consciousn person had the experience. It didn't, nor can it for the body was laid out in bed and didn't move.

So this is what I say, that I Ben, the ego, persona, has never left this body and never will as it is an integral of the physical body. It is the astral double and the higher consciousness associated with it that leaves the body in lucid dreams and has the experience that registers/imprints on the physical brain the impressions related to the events in the astral world, and that are subsequently framed as an ego experience on awakening and remembered. That is the error, the framing of the lucid dream's content as involving the now awake 'dreamer'. It actually wasn't a dream to higher consciousness, it was real, but not real for the ego except as a lucid dream.

I have never met an alien in my dream state, but I have the recollection of my higher self meeting an alien in my dream state. It has further been explained to me to never permit the ego to claim the experience of astral events, for it is the road to confusion and retardation of the evoltionary unfoldment.

That incidently is why I think that the mystical traditions warn against all attempts by mortals to practice necromancy, persue powers involving astral energies, siddhis, etc..
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Hammer of Los » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:31 pm

...

What an interesting post by Ben D.

I always knew you had some attainment, my dear fellow.

Except of course there isn't any, is there?

...
Hammer of Los
 
Posts: 3309
Joined: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:48 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Ben D » Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:14 am

You're on it Hammer of Los.. :thumbsup, ..as the saying goes,...realization is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realized. - Wei Wu Wei...

But between you and I, the hard part is letting go of stuff that we think we know. That process is a painful one for the ego is one and the same as the conceptualized knowledge one 'thinks' is true.

Funny that, humility only comes about by being subject to prolonged and intense humiliation until all that remains is the underlying perfect awareness that was always there... :wink:
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Aurataur » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:46 pm

When I was a young boy, I had a strange ability to alter my dream state. I didn't have the ability to control the actual content of my dreams, but I did have the ability to "change the channel" in my mind when a dream was frightening or even just boring. I even remember the ability to cycle through these dreams and go back to one that I had previously skipped. I would close my eyes and think about changing dreams. The dream would then turn to static, and a new dream would take its place. I had this ability until I was around twelve years old.

However, there was one dream that I could never escape from. This trick simply did not work, though I can't recall ever remembering to do so. It was a recurring nightmare that lasted until I was twelve, and seemed to disappear around the same time I lost the ability to "change the channel" in my dream state. I can still remember the dream quite vividly.

I was walking across a desolate plain as a maelstrom of violent clouds battled in the sky. Then, on the horizon, a shape began to materialize. I ran toward it and discovered a huge castle, in complete disrepair. Huge chunks of the wall had broken off and crumbled to the ground below.

I entered the castle. Inside, all the inhabitants had been frozen in stone as they were going about their daily lives. People, dogs, goats, chickens, all locked in that one moment in time. I wandered through the courtyard and came upon a huge lever. I knew that I shouldn't pull it, but I couldn't help myself. I pulled the lever. The ground began to shake. Sections of stone started falling from the walls. In the courtyard, I watched as the stone figures crumbled to dust, leaving only their skeletons. The skeletons came to life. They chased me, bound me, and tied me to a stone slab in the center of the courtyard. A skeleton with burning red eyes raised a huge axe above my head. Just as the axe fell, I would awaken, started and terrified.
User avatar
Aurataur
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:05 pm
Location: Lost Angeles
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Ben D » Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:39 am

Aurataur wrote:When I was a young boy, I had a strange ability to alter my dream state. I didn't have the ability to control the actual content of my dreams, but I did have the ability to "change the channel" in my mind when a dream was frightening or even just boring. I even remember the ability to cycle through these dreams and go back to one that I had previously skipped. I would close my eyes and think about changing dreams. The dream would then turn to static, and a new dream would take its place. I had this ability until I was around twelve years old.

However, there was one dream that I could never escape from. This trick simply did not work, though I can't recall ever remembering to do so. It was a recurring nightmare that lasted until I was twelve, and seemed to disappear around the same time I lost the ability to "change the channel" in my dream state. I can still remember the dream quite vividly.

I was walking across a desolate plain as a maelstrom of violent clouds battled in the sky. Then, on the horizon, a shape began to materialize. I ran toward it and discovered a huge castle, in complete disrepair. Huge chunks of the wall had broken off and crumbled to the ground below.

I entered the castle. Inside, all the inhabitants had been frozen in stone as they were going about their daily lives. People, dogs, goats, chickens, all locked in that one moment in time. I wandered through the courtyard and came upon a huge lever. I knew that I shouldn't pull it, but I couldn't help myself. I pulled the lever. The ground began to shake. Sections of stone started falling from the walls. In the courtyard, I watched as the stone figures crumbled to dust, leaving only their skeletons. The skeletons came to life. They chased me, bound me, and tied me to a stone slab in the center of the courtyard. A skeleton with burning red eyes raised a huge axe above my head. Just as the axe fell, I would awaken, started and terrified.

Interesting post Aurataur, thanks for sharing. I went through what may be a similar process when I was young. So far as my waking state consciousness is concerned, whenever I was alone I would frequently go into a daydream state where I understood clearly that I was not actually from Earth, but here on a mission that I was specialized in, having been through it many times before on other planetary systems. This lasted until I entered my teens and started noticing girls. :wink:

It is said in esoteric schools that the the process of incarnation is not complete until puberty, and then the 'genie' is well and truly sealed in the 'bottle'. The genie from then on will be unable to leave the bottle (lucid dream time excepted) until it is 'broken' at death, or liberated by some spiritual practice during life.

So what I'm implying is that as children, our souls/spirit are not yet fully disconnected from the source of our existence, and it is not until we mature that our feet are firmly planted in and on the material world. Towards the end of life, for those whose 'heart' still yearns for 'home' and live accordingly, they may once again have the experience of being near the source. Perhaps, as some esoteric scholars say, that is the metaphorical meaning to the words of Jesus,.."Unless you become as these little children, you will in no way see the Kingdom of Heaven".

My quick interpetation of your dream is....the crumbling castle represenrs the actual decaying state of this lower world you witnessed in incarnation, ...the inhabitants frozen in stone represent the general materialistic nature of people of this generation, including the housing, boxes, pens, and cages of the respective human and animal species they were made to live in...a coutyard housing a huge lever represents the sexual organ that you knew you were not to pull,...but the temptation (hormonal flow) was such that around age 12, Spoiler:.it got pulled,...the red eyed skeleton with huge axe that cuts off your head,...the red eyed skeleton represents death, the color red being the lowest vibration of the visible light spectrum,...and cutting off the head in this context being the disconnect of your higher self/spirit from the body, the lower self, ego,...So after this, a diminished awareness of the higher realms ensued and you 'died' spiritually to become just another one of the living dead, i.e. mortal egos. The recurring dream stops after age 12 because the prescience of the dream content has played out,.. its already happened, whereas before the dreams was prescient concerning the potential and inevitable fall into dense materiality. (Actually there is an essential reason for this in the larger context of cosmic evolution and it underlies the very purpose of reincarnation and karma doctrine, so it is not as though it is something that can be avoided.)

Btw, if anyone is interested in the simplified description of the states of consciousness associated with waking and sleeping according to the ancient traditions of Sanatan Dharma, read on...

In the Sanatan Dharma (Hindu) tradition, there are four distinctions or states of awareness recognized. These are known as waking state, the dream state, the dreamless state, and the ultimate 'turiya' state which is non-dual or pure awareness.

However in truth, there is really no definite distinctions in reality, it really is a continuum as the waking state gives way to the dream state, the dream state gives way to dreamless, and finally, the dreamless state gives way to the Turiya state, or Pure Consciousness.

I understand from the Mandukya Upanishad, and various commentaries on it, that waking state ego awareness relies on mind's self referenced conceptualization to represent the reality filtered through to the mind via the senses of touching, smelling, tasting, seeing, and hearing. Thus, a state of duality results, a relationship of subject - object of what is really just the One-Reality. Science measures beta brainwaves of 14-40 hz in this first state.

As awareness rises in sensitivity to the larger evironment beyond that limited to the 5 body senses in the dream state ego, it becomes less self referenced to time/3D space, and a cause and effect dualistic experience arises which still obscures the awareness of the One-Reality. Science measures Alpha brainwaves of 7 - 14hz as well as Theta brainwves at 4-7 Hz in this second state.

As awareness rises further to the dreamless state ego, subjective experience is greatly diminished, hence duality doesn't arise to create a division of the One-Reality. An almost pure state of awareness exists. Science measure Delta brainwaves of 0.5 - 4 Hz in this third state.

Now it is said that with many years of practice of Dhyan (still mind meditation), these states of consciousness will arise one by one until the third state is reached, a state of Samadhi, almost pure consciousness.

From this third state, with continued unfolding (Kundalini), pure non-dual awareness realization is attained, not by any effort on ther part of the human entity, but rather it is the eternal underlying unity of the Cosmos that was hitherto obscured by activity of mind on the lower levels. This is the Turiya state of which nothing can be said. One presumes that if there were any brainwves to be measured at all while in this state, they would be approaching zero,..zero has a wavelength of infinity.

..namaste..Image
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Aurataur » Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:44 pm

Thank you for that insightful and though-provoking analysis of my dream, Ben.
User avatar
Aurataur
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:05 pm
Location: Lost Angeles
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Ben D » Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:41 pm

Thank you Aurataur, the obligatory pilgrimage to these lower spheres,...carnal pleasures aside,...can be and is quite difficult, but it's all for a good cause.

Religion (Latin: re again, ligio to tie or connect)
Yoga (Sanskrit: union)

Self awareness is created when a portion of pure awareness is separated and constrained from re-merging with the pure awareness source from whence it came for the period of a mortal life. Eventually after a number of cycles through the involutionary/evolutionary reincarnation cycles, a unique compassionate developed self awareness evolves from the lower selfish nature we know so well as raw ego, and which is ultimately translated/modulated upon the ubiquitous pure awareness source to join the 'immortals'.

And btw, for those who ever wonder, there is no such place as an eternal hell, all are destined to ultimate reunion, though certainly not at the same time. That's what makes it impossible for there to be any consensus as to the best way forward for the human race, depending on where souls are in the cycles, there are those newer souls who are yet to lose their innocence and grow in self interest, while at the other end there are those 'spiritual' souls who are practically selfless and in their last incarnation, and all the others somewhere in between with a vast number who constitute the center are the lukewarmers whose present conceptual reality is thoroughly grounded in materialism and hence are 'blind' to the larger sphere, and for the most part subtle, of Cosmic existence of which they are a part.

Image
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Hammer of Los » Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:01 pm

...

God bless you Ben D.

I say too little, I know.

I'm working on it.

Oh yeah lucid dreaming.

I used to do it spontaneously quite a lot in my early teens.

Very enjoyable, determining the content of your own dreams.

I used to like being a superhero.

I would dig the chicks hanging off me.

And I loved having the ability to smash brick walls to powder and chunks of flying masonry, effortlessly defeat bullies, save the day etc.

Chunks of flying masonry! Ha ha!

Needless to say, instead of being a rocky abomination, I was rather a handsome fellow.

I could leap up onto tall buildings, too.

Still couldn't fly though.

What a crazy world we do live in.



:shock: :lol2: :shock:


ps My kung fu hasn't advanced yet to the stage where I can punch holes in walls. At least, I don't think so. I haven't seriously tried it. Yet. But alas, I very much doubt such a thing is possible. Yet I recall Jiddu's maxim: Where a doubt arises, first seek a means of resolving that doubt. And I recall the ancient practice of wu wei: that is to say, ultimate patience. Ah Patience, I do recall thee also.

...
Hammer of Los
 
Posts: 3309
Joined: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:48 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Hammer of Los » Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:27 am

...

Ben D wrote:You're on it Hammer of Los.. :thumbsup, ..as the saying goes,...realization is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realized. - Wei Wu Wei...

But between you and I, the hard part is letting go of stuff that we think we know. That process is a painful one for the ego is one and the same as the conceptualized knowledge one 'thinks' is true.

Funny that, humility only comes about by being subject to prolonged and intense humiliation until all that remains is the underlying perfect awareness that was always there... :wink:


I found it easy.

I always knew I knew nothing.

From the age of 5 I clearly recall asking who am i where am i what am i what am i doing here and a short while later what is life what is death what is love what is mortality what is generation what is innocence what is experience what is fear what is doubt etc and so on and so forth. Restless mind. Except when I empty it. Then it becomes full. The secret of the cornucopia explained. In plain sight.. occult secrets.. and so on.

Yet I digress as always. Split infinitely am I.

Ahem. Back down to earth. With a bump. Where was I?

First seek to find out, what can be known, and how can it be known.

That was my starter for ten.

The Cartesian project, my dear fellow. Yet he put the cart etc. A thought exists but where is the thinker? Seek and ye shall find I tell thee. In the midst of loss is it to be found.

Practice thoroughgoing agnosticism. Believe nothing, neither its negation, opposite, antithesis nor corollary

Epistemology precedes even metaphysics.

Absolutely relative are all conceptions of human thought.

What is known is the thought but not the thinker. The thought and the world are one; "The tathagata Buddha, the father Buddha said, "With our thoughts we create the world." Yet the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown."

And the phoenix must ever die to rise again.

The birds sing to me in the night. I know not why.

Yet may the bird's wing represent many things.

As may Fear of Flying, may God help me.

Who will help me with my fear of flying?

...

Oh oh! Last bit;

Lesson #1:

(Never forget to breathe!) Learning to breathe IS learning to calm down.*



:lovehearts: :angelwings: :lovehearts:


* Alternatively; learning to breathe is learning to calm down, calm down (delivered in scouse accent). I am from that part of the world, after all. I don't have a perm though. And I'm not typically a fan of Harry Enfield either.

ps Re the comment about humiliation. You hit the goddamn nail on the head hard with that one. You brought tears to my eyes, I kid ye not.

...
Hammer of Los
 
Posts: 3309
Joined: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:48 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Ben D » Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:43 am

Thanks for that and God bless you Hammer of Los. :lovehearts:

ps Re the comment about humiliation. You hit the goddamn nail on the head hard with that one. You brought tears to my eyes, I kid ye not.

Ahh empathy,..it takes one to know one... :wink:

Btw, I too was a fan of J. Krishnamirti, read most of his books in my earlier life and tried to live it.

It is said that...in "Truth is a pathless land", he was simply rephrasing the ancient Vedic proclamation "Tat Tvam Asi" - You are That.

And so if you are already that to which you aspire, paths may only take you away from yourself, so it then all comes down to the question of who and what I really am?

The use of metaphor, allegory, simile, parable, and mystical language by any worthy teacher serves no other purpose than to point in the right direction,..the rest is up to the aspirant.

So one should always remember,..only when the heart is undisturbed, and the mind is still, will that which is sought not be obscured by your thoughts about that which is sought. :)
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby BrandonD » Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:27 pm

FWIW, in my experience precognitive dreams and lucid dreaming are not necessarily related to one another. I had several precognitive dreams many years before I finally succeeded in teaching myself how to lucid dream.

This one was probably the most significant: I was living in Seattle at the time, and I was 3 days away from moving back to my home state of TX. I had a dream that I was waiting in line to get on the bus, and I looked ahead of me and saw a guy in line about my age. I said to myself, "I hope that guy sits next to me, so we can play chess".

I forgot about this dream, until the bus ride back to TX. The guy who sat next to me was a burly guy about my age, he had a buzz cut and did not look like an "intellectual" at all. I had absolutely no thought of the dream until about an hour into the drive, when he suddenly pulled a chess board out of his backpack and asked me if I wanted to play. I suddenly recalled the dream and realized that he was the person who had been standing in the line.

It turned out we were both going to TX and we actually ended up becoming friends, and on day 3 of the bus trip (yes it was a 3-day bus trip!) I told him about my dream. He was very spooked also, hehe.
"One measures a circle, beginning anywhere." -Charles Fort
User avatar
BrandonD
 
Posts: 768
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:05 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby 82_28 » Mon Mar 12, 2012 3:23 pm

Has anyone heard of John William Dunne?

I found out about him by way of for some reason naming a website/blog I once ran "www.dunneIV.org". It came to me in a dream and I woke up repeating the phrase "done for", "done for" etc. So I decided to google the significance of the spelling of the name "Dunne" and why I kept saying "done for". Well, I came across this cat:

John William Dunne FRAeS (1875–1949) was an Anglo-Irish aeronautical engineer and author. In the field of parapsychology, he achieved a preeminence through his theories on dreams and authoring books preoccupied with the question of the nature of time. As a pioneering aeronautical engineer in the early years of the 20th century, Dunne worked on many early military aircraft, concentrating on tailless designs, producing inherently stable aircraft.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Dunne

He happened to have written a book in the 1920s called "An Experiment With Time", summarized here:

Basic concepts

Dunne's theory is, simply put, that all moments in time are taking place at once, at the same time. For example, if a cat were to spend its whole entire life living in a box, anyone looking into the box could see the cat's birth, life and death in the same instant - were it not for the human consciousness, which means that we perceive at a fixed rate.

According to Dunne, whilst human consciousness prevents us from seeing outside of the part of time we are "meant" to look at, whilst we are dreaming we have the ability to traverse all of time without the restriction of consciousness, leading to pre-cognitive dreams, resulting in the phenomena known as Deja vu. Henceforth, Dunne believes that we are existing in two parallel states, which requires a complete rethink of the way that we understand time.
[edit] Dunne's experiment

In An Experiment with Time, Dunne discusses how a theoretical ability to perceive events outside the normal observer's stream of consciousness might be proved to exist. He also discusses some of the possible other explanations of this effect, such as déjà vu.

He proposes that observers should place themselves in environments where consciousness might best be freed and then, immediately upon their waking, note down the memories of what had been dreamed, together with the date. Later, these notes should be scanned, with possible connections drawn between them and real life events that occurred after the notes had been written.

While the first half of the book is an explanation of the theory, the latter part comprises examples of notes and later interpretations of them as possible predictions. Statistical analysis was at that time in its infancy, and no calculation of the significance of the events reported was able to be made.
[edit] Parallels with other scientific and metaphysical systems

Dunne's theory of time has parallels in many other scientific and metaphysical theories. The Aboriginal people of Australia, for example, believe that the Dreamtime exists simultaneously in the present, past and future, and that this is the objective truth of time, linear time being a creation of human consciousness and therefore subjective. Kabbalah, Taoism and indeed most mystical traditions have always posited that waking consciousness allows awareness of reality and time in only a limited way and that it is in the sleeping state that the mind can go free into the multi-dimensional reality of time and space (examples: "Dreams are the wandering of the spirit through all nine heavens and nine earths," The Secret of the Golden Flower, trans. Richard Wilhelm). Similarly, all mystery traditions speak of the immortal and temporal selves which exist simultaneously both within time and space and without.

There are also parallels with classical relativity theory, in which time and space are merged into "spacetime", and time is not absolute and independent but is dependent upon the motion of the observer.
[edit] Influence

In literature, interest in Dunne's theory may be reflected in T. S. Eliot's Burnt Norton, from Four Quartets, which opens with the lines:

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.[1][2]

J. B. Priestley used Dunne's theory directly in his play Time and the Conways, professing in his introduction that he believed the theory to be true. Other writers contemporaneous to Dunne who expressed enthusiasm for his ideas included Aldous Huxley, who was also interested in the expansion of human consciousness to experience time, and Adolfo Bioy Casares, who mentioned this book in the introduction to his novel The Dream of Heroes (1954).

Charles Chilton used Dunne's analogy of time as a book to explain time travel in his radio play Journey Into Space. Philippa Pearce's childhood fantasy Tom's Midnight Garden also makes use of Dunne's ideas.

The idea that time might be experienced differently in enfolded space is one posited by quantum physicist David Bohm, who also believed that consciousness defined how we perceived the world. Bohm, who called for a revolution in human consciousness to free us from the old, Newtonian, mechanistic understanding of the universe, even posited that through a transformation of consciousness Time could possibly cease to exist in the way we perceive it now (cf., "The Ending Of Time" by Jiddu Krishnamurti and Dr David Bohm).

The 1964 novel Froomb! by British writer John Lymington refers to and is inspired by some of Dunne's concepts.[3] The protagonist, intended to be scientifically "killed" and revived to bring back an account of Heaven, is instead physically transported into the future, a parallel "time-band." He attempts to communicate with the controller of the experiment through dreams.

In the 1970 children's TV series, Timeslip, a time bubble allows two children to travel between past, present and future. Much of the show's time travel concepts were based on An Experiment with Time.[4]

An Experiment with Time is referenced in the book Sidetripping by William S. Burroughs and Charles Gatewood.

It is also mentioned in the book "Last Men In London" by Olaf Stapledon (1932).

It is also mentioned in the story "Murder in the Gunroom" by H. Beam Piper, and in "Elsewhen" by Robert A. Heinlein.

The ideas of Dunne also form the basis for "The Dark Tower" a short story by C. S. Lewis, and the unpublished novel, "The Notion Club Papers" by J. R. R. Tolkien. Both Tolkien and Lewis were members of the Inklings.

In the 2002 French movie Irréversible, one of the characters is seen reading the book by Dunne. The movie also investigates the aspects of the book through the style of filming, in that the story is told backwards, with each beginning sequence beginning either minutes or hours prior to the one which preceded it in the narrative. Also, the tagline is Le temps détruit tout meaning "Time destroys everything" – it is the first phrase spoken and the last phrase written.

In his book Is There Life After Death? (2006), British writer Anthony Peake wrote that some of Dunne's ideas are valid and attempts to update the ideas of Dunne in the light of the latest theories of quantum physics, neurology and consciousness studies.[5]
[edit]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Experiment_with_Time

Well, this morning I was having lucid dreams that (hopefully not my ex) girlfriend was texting me left and right and was emailing me. But the texts were lucid enough that each time I would wake up and would have to remind myself that there was no need to check my email or phone from any message from her. Then I logged into RI and saw this thread at the top of the queue and thought, maybe just maybe I can find something about this relatively obscure book I could add to the mix in this fascinating thread.

There used to be a site that had most chapters of An Experiment with Time a number of years ago -- hence how I even found the guy and his works. It's since gone defunct and haven't been able to find it in years. Yet it also, at the time of my website, was long out of print. Well, it's since gone back into print and can be found the usual ways.

HOWEVER!

Sweet, says I!

I just found it here and I do really recommend reading it. . .

http://www.archive.org/details/AnExperimentWithTime

You can download as pdf, kindle etc.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby BrandonD » Mon Mar 12, 2012 4:45 pm

Thank you, just downloaded that book and looking forward to reading it!
"One measures a circle, beginning anywhere." -Charles Fort
User avatar
BrandonD
 
Posts: 768
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:05 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby Marie Laveau » Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:20 pm

I've had one lucid dream and it wasn't pretty.

I had a "thinking chair" in my old house and I would sit and read and just think. One day I closed my eyes and IMMEDIATELY I was....somewhere else....for lack of a better term.

I was on a sidewalk, walking toward this huge, concrete, monolithic building. It was square and had one metal door on the side and a row of daylight, opaque windows at the top. The building was, approximately, two-and-a-half to three stories tall.

I walked to the door, opened it, and inside this building was a concrete pool of black water. The water itself wasn't black, just that whatever that pool was, it wasn't a beautifully blue painted swimming hole. There was a large walkway around the pool, probably five or six feet wide. The pool itself was contained with a concrete wall about a foot high.

Anyway, I stood and looked at it for a minute and all of a sudden I realized that the water in that pool was meant to fill that entire building....and then I got an image of why.

Then, immediately I was sitting in my chair. That's the only lucid dream I've ever had, and I hope it never happens again.
Marie Laveau
 
Posts: 547
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2011 9:17 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Postby psynapz » Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:33 pm

Marie Laveau wrote:I've had one lucid dream and it wasn't pretty.

I had a "thinking chair" in my old house and I would sit and read and just think. One day I closed my eyes and IMMEDIATELY I was....somewhere else....for lack of a better term.

I was on a sidewalk, walking toward this huge, concrete, monolithic building. It was square and had one metal door on the side and a row of daylight, opaque windows at the top. The building was, approximately, two-and-a-half to three stories tall.

I walked to the door, opened it, and inside this building was a concrete pool of black water. The water itself wasn't black, just that whatever that pool was, it wasn't a beautifully blue painted swimming hole. There was a large walkway around the pool, probably five or six feet wide. The pool itself was contained with a concrete wall about a foot high.

Anyway, I stood and looked at it for a minute and all of a sudden I realized that the water in that pool was meant to fill that entire building....and then I got an image of why.

Well... why?
“blunting the idealism of youth is a national security project” - Hugh Manatee Wins
User avatar
psynapz
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:01 pm
Location: In the Flow, In the Now, Forever
Blog: View Blog (0)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 43 guests