The Dream is the Door, the Path, and the Ticket Out

In the West, dreams are written off as a curious psychological side effect of sleep.  Some New Agers try to interpret dreams in order to gain personal and spiritual insight.  Dreaming is not taught in America and is becoming more and more overlooked and ignored.  Some even claim to never have dreams at all (or at least remember them. Everyone has dreams every night. REM sleep is essential to our psychological well being).

There were some cultures, in the past, that took dreaming practices very seriously.  The Toltec cultures of Central and South America are among them.  In Carlos Castaneda's The Art of Dreaming, Carlos describes his dreaming instruction under the tutelage of Yaqui Indian sorcerer Juan Matus.  In this engaging novel, dreaming becomes much more than a scientific curiosity.  It becomes a door to the multiverse.   

One has to keep in mind, however, that the Toltec system is just that.  It's a system.  Systems are open to interpretation.  Some systems work for some better than others.  A good book on dreaming from a Western perspective is Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold.  It teaches the techniques for lucid dreaming, or dreaming while being aware that you are dreaming.  It is essentially no different than the Castaneda book, but it is less esoteric and focuses on the everyday practicality of lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming is difficult and, as all worthwhile pursuits do, requires effort. Dreams, for most people, are not easily remembered in detail.  Remembering dreams is a habit that must be formed and is most efficiently done by use of a dream journal.  When several dreams (I would suggest 30 or more, maybe as much as 50) are recorded then patterns begin to emerge. These patterns can be recognized through repitition, and thus become the catalyst for realizing one is dreaming during a dream.  After several years of trying (with varying degrees of dedication) I still cannot induce a lucid dream regularly.

What to do once you have become lucid is a matter of personal preference.  Exploring  the World... suggests several pursuits ranging from simple entertainment to conquering phobias and fears.  The more esoteric  Art of Dreaming describes a very serious (and potentially dangerous) approach to exploring realms other than our own.  Personally, I am interested in obtaining knowledge and exploring the limits of my mind and spirit.  I have, in dreams past, encountered intelligences that were not a product of my mind's creativity.  Twice I feel I have been the intended victim of a psychic attack, and once when attempting to ask a dream character about occult knowledge, I attracted the notice of a foreign "energy" and was literally kicked out of the dream.  One "entity" told me, essentially, that it was present in one of my dreams to feed off of my sexual energy.  The task can be daunting, but if you can be aware enough to perform a banishing, then you can drastically limit the influence of foreign energies.  A good site to look up for online community and support is Dream Journal - http://www.dreamjournal.net/.

Dreaming, in the West, is a largely unexplored universe, and an untapped resource.  What is or is not possible?  How does magick work in dreams, and is it more or less potent? Is the dream world an end itself or a jumping point into a greater reality?  The best way to find out is to go and do it.  Explore it with scientific meticulousness and an open mind.  Record successes and failures, and share them with those who will find it useful.  Dreaming is a lost art, so rediscover it and become an astral artist, an energetic revolutionary, a mad scientist of the Great Unknown!