Lucid Dreaming, 11


11.

Varieties of Dream Figures

125-37

p. 125 the nature of dream-beings (dream-deities)

"When lucid dreamers consciously engage and converse with dream figures, the dream figures frequently surprise them with their knowledge, observations, and rational comments ... .

As such, lucid dreaming provides for an entirely new perspective on the nature of the dream realm and dream figures.

{The only reason why "non-lucid" dreaming is not viewed as at least aequally as capable (as "lucid" dreaming) for exposing the nature of the dreaming-world would be that there may be less of a personal inclination (in "non-lucid" dreaming) for describing one's own attitude toward the dream-world. [It is analogous with the situation of becoming "lucid" about the exploitive, oppressive, and suppressive nature of capitalism : the only factor here that is significant is one's willingness (or lack thereof) to becoming personally involved in explicitly evaluating one's public attitudes toward capitalism. Even before one became "lucid" about capitalism one knew of its vicious nature, but was reluctant to say to publicly : the "conversion-experience" in "lucidity" about capitalism is actually merely an achievement of a level of fearlessness rendring one's self capable to speaking one's realizations publicly. So, likewise, is the "lucidity" achieved by a (sporadically-)"lucid" dreamer : always thitherto aware (even when non-"lucid") of the oddity of the dreaming-world, one eventually (with "lucidity") may attain the courage to speak of this in public.] [written Oct 3 2013]}

Some ... dream figures ... argue logically and convincingly for their autonomous existence in an evironment

they perceive as real

{The mortal dreamer also always perceiveth to dream-world to be at least as real as the waking-world. The reality of the dreaming-world is perceived to be more real (than the waking-world) wherever logical cogency and social co-operation are considered to be defining characteristics of reality; whereas the waking-world can be deemed more real (than, supposedly, the waking-world) only where disfunctionality and social irresponsibility are imagined to be the hypothetical essential nature of conjectured "reality" (such as, of the disfunctional and irresponsible system known as "capitalism"). [written Oct 3 2013]}

and resent the lucid dreamer's comments about "creating" them.

{The only praetendedly "lucid" mortal dreamer who might [rather hypocritically!] feign to "create" the mighty immortals witnessed in dreaming (though in truth the mortal is incapable of "creating" so much as even his or her own dream-body), would be one who would very much relish to be in charge of bullying and brutalizing human slaves (in the waking-world), likewise falsely boasting to the slaves (while torturing them) of having created them out of nothingness (and that therefore they could not own even their own bodies, which are essentially nothingnesses) -- such arrogant taunts being continually vaunted before, during, and after, ceaseless torturing-sessions. [written Oct 3 2013]}

Still other lucid dream figures ... act in such way as to be seen as independent agents with an apparent agenda of their own, sometimes in in contradiction to that of the lucid dreamer; they sometimes even provide useful advice or suggest ways to manipulate the lucid dream environment."

p. 126 the author's sexual intercourse with 3 different dream-women in rapid succession in the self-same dream

"In a lucid dream years ago, for example, I found myself having sex with an attractive woman dream figure. ... Suddenly, she was gone. ... Before I could ponder ..., another woman had taken her place! ... she seemed to know the part quite well and we continued the scenario with passionate gusto. ... She too vanished. ... Before I could finish ..., a third woman lay underneath me! ... she seemed intent on fulfilling the mission."

{The author's indicating that for this triple episode they performed sexual intercourse in "the missionary position" is hardly explanatory of a triple vanishment; for in a dream (a good decade ago) involving vanishment and sudden of appearance in that person's place of another person, I was myself instead in the position of being on my knees for performing kissing of the genitals, and the situation ended [not, as in his case, "she was gone before I could say "disappear"" (p. 127 infra), but rather] with myself on my knees with a naked woman standing of front of me, but with myself so uncertain as to the sexual etiquette of how to proceed in such a case vanishment and sudden of appearance in that person's place of another person, that in such a quandary of uncertainty I awoke perplexed. (I apparently needed to consult a Divine Guidebook for the Perplexed detailing sexual etiquette in a such an anomalous praeternatural praedicament, before I would have been willing to proceed, knowing full well that supernatural divinities may become enraged at even the slightest lapse in conforming to their customary etiquette for erotic situations!) [Most likely (as I now realize), that would have been a situation wherein what would have been divinely required of me, would have been for me to offer to the woman that she torment my body for her own amusement, by biting my body, pinching it, etc. etc. For me to have failed to do so (if the dream had continued longer), might have entailed some such punishment (to be inflicted by another goddess) of me as was suffered by Dumuzid at the behest of goddess Eres`-ki-gal for the sake of goddess In-anna.] [written Oct 6 2013]}

p. 127 "thought-forms"?

"I have tried this same announcement -- "All thought-forms must now disappear" -- in a number of lucid dreams.

{Incidentally, the term "thought-form" was originally applied by psychics (of the Theosophical Society) to inexplicable design-elements viewed within the auras of other persons (while in the waking state). It is a very gross misapplication of the term to any being-like (entity-like, personage-like) figure; and it is a further misuse of the term to apply it to any features of a dream.}

Occasionally all dream figures disappear, but sometimes they do'nt."

{Those dream-beings (dream-deities) who vanish are the ones who are the most easily insulted by any suggestion that they be controlled by any mortal dreamer. (To be easily insulted by the author's ludicrous absurdities would tend to be a sign of high refinement of ethical and of spiritual character on the part of the exalted deities.) Those who remain (instead of vanishing) are simply cruder and coarser in ethics and in spirituality, and therefore are more difficult to insult.}

{The author is extremely nai:ve to take all happenings relating to responses by dream-deity excessively literally, without regard to extricating the divine social contexts within the divine dream worlds. It causes him to misunderstand grossly the implication of virtually all events in those worlds.}

p 127 "part of you"?

"A man appeared. ... He said, "I am a part of you." ... Then, another man walked in. ... He said, "I'm part of you that stakes out territory and uncharted areas." ...

{The author was so arrogantly deluded as to imagine that the aeternal divine dream-world was a part of his petty, mortal self. In satirical sacasm intended to ridicule the author's deluded folly, a dream-deity maketh the intentionally absurd remark that he is a part of the author's self. But the author is so fatuously obtuse as to fail to recognize the mordant sarcasm in such a remark, even when it is restated in an even more absurd manner by a 2nd dream-god. (The latter, more absurd sarcastic remark is that the author hath every right to claim as his own personal property a vast domain already inhabited since time immemorial by numberless mighty dream-deities.)}

He said, "We are going over all parts of you. ... Because the, you can be a complete, single entity -- a whole person.""

{There is irony also in this remark : for it insinuateth that the author is an incomplete person (i.e., of incomplete understanding about the realistic fact that any realm already controlled since the beginning of time by almighty deities cannot be claimed from them a such an arrogant upstart mortal as the author).}

{description of attitude of Otherworld-deities toward a mortal explorer arriving uninvited in their territories : "Some will not want you there ... . ... Some of them may consider you to be an intruder ... . ... People don't act the way you expect them to." (Drawing Down the Spirits (Destiny Bks, 2009), p. 104 : quoting from The Pathwalker's Guide to the Nine Worlds.)}

pp. 128-9 yantra

p. 128

"I ... go inside ... a library. Suddenly I realize, "This is a dream! ..." ... Interestingly, we can now see through the building to the basement of the library. ... the basement floor has ... a fascinating design.

I see a large circle outlined, and then

within tha circle, a square, touching the circle at four equal points.

On that square sits an equilateral triangle ... and

standing upright in the middle of the triangle, I can see a softly marked rectangle. The rectangle stops at a point on the triangle where it creates three new smaller triangles : the top point and alternate triangles pointing either way."

p. 129

"Years later, I finally realized that I had been shown a yantra symbol in a lucid dream."

{The specific type of yantra (consisting of concentric geometric figures) shewn to the author in the dream is typical of emblems of religious orders in India.}

pp. 129-30 how a mortal may cultivate a reputation of intellectual respectability in a divine dreaming-world : author's dream of 2005

p. 129

"After noticing an odd airplane, I begin to realize this is a dream, and I pull my awareness fully into the dream. (Sometimes this seems like pulling a full bucket from a deep well -- it's almost a physical sensation.) I ask the dream residents some questions. ... The basic conversation develops that in the dream state I appear to them as a type of awareness, and each of them appears to me as a type of awareness as well. The conversation is about how one needs to show an understanding of and appreciation for the dream figures' own valid awareness. ...

p. 130

The dream figures suggest they need to be treated thoughtfully in order to respond thoughtfully."

p. 130 awareness is inhaerent in dream-beings (dream-deities)

"1) since ... dream figures have a type of awareness, you should approach them on this basis, and 2) based on their responsiveness, you can determine what type of further inbteraction seems warranted."

"Many lucid dreamers ... discover that ... dream figures ... possess a type of awareness, knowledge, and action."

p. 130 lucid-dream-beings (dream-deities) have jobs to collect information on dreaming mortals {cf. the duties of divine flying-saucer denizens to collect information on mortal earthlings}

[quoted from Barasch 2000, p. 206] "I get a tremendous feeling that this is their life, walking around in dreams, just like we have jobs out here. The nurse [in the dream] says something like, "Now you know that this is a dream, you know that we have a lot of information on you.""

Barasch 2000 = Marc Ian Barasch : Healing Dreams. NY : Riverhead Bks.

pp. 130-1 recurrent dream-beings (dream-deities), resultant in seeing jewels

p. 130

"Recurring dream figures occasionally appear in lucid dreams. ... And this lucid dream of recurring dream figures happened while I slept outside in the Grand Canyon ... (August 2003) :

[cf. the author's viewing, as canyons, of his own palm-and finger-prints in another of his dreams.]

p. 131

"... I become lucid as I say, "You are the woman that was in my dream last night!" She grabs my hand to focus on the palm print and points at it ... . As I look, I notice various gemstones lying on my hand ... .


In the very center of the palm is a round yellow sapphire.

{For naks.atra Hasta ('Hand') the praesiding deity is Savitr., whose sacrificial animal is (Taittiriya Samhita 5:5:18) a yellow-haired cock.}


An emerald-colored stone sits at my thumb's base, and

{The thumb is assigned to (GM 53.1) a god who "was said to have had leaves growing from his body" (Palaiphatos 37) -- thus green (like the emerald).}


a ruby-colored stone on the opposite side [of the width of the palm]. An inch below the index finger, where the life line and head line begin, there's a diamond."

pp. 131-2 encountring one's double in a lucid dream; encountring a talking totem-pole figurine

p. 131

[quoted from a woman in LUCID DREAM EXCHANGE 32 (Sept 2004), 19] "After I became lucid, I was one of a pair of identical twins who never previous knew each other ... . We had a great time with each other, learning and teaching".

{Encountring one's double is mentioned in myths, from, e.g., New Guinea.}

p. 132

[author's lucid dream of 2003] "I sat, "This is a dream." ... I see a totem pole with figures ... . ... Suddenly he comes to life and becomes life size."

New Guinea.

p. 133 "ball of light" in lucid dream

[quoted from LUCID DREAM EXCHANGE 34 (Mar 2005), 34] "I announce, "... I am dreaming." As if in response to a password, a ball of light starts to form accross the room ... . ... this ball is orange and yellow ... . I ask it what it is, and (without words) I am told it will always be there to help me in my dreams. If I need it, I just have to call. ... Then it disappears. ... I fly on".

p. 133 dream-guide Philemon (quoted from Jung 1963, p. 183)

"Philemon and other figures ... brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the {dream} which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force that was not myself."

Jung 1963 = Carl Gustav Jung (ed. by Aniela Jaffe'; transl. by Richard & Clara Winston) : Memories, Dreams, Reflections. NY : Pantheon Bks.

pp. 134-5 types of knowledgeable interaction of dream-beings (dream-deities) with mortal dreamer

p. 134

"Provide information that is unknown to the lucid dreamer but verifiable".

p. 135

"Education or knowledge of the dream state : ... can reason with the dreamer, provide information".

pp. 135-6 the nature of dream-beings (dream-deities)

p. 135

"dream figures ... represent something outside ... our waking ego self. These dream figures may ... actually be the mental form of the deceased,


other dreamers ..., and so on".

{There are indeed in one's dreaming other mortal dreamers, in the particular cases of mutual-dreaming and of dreamwalking (but not generally otherwise).}

p. 136

"Some may wonder if the lucid dreamer's awareness attracts certain types of dream figures ... . ...


One can find many examples in which dream figures appear to be consciously aware [of being in a dream-world] before the lucid dreamer achieves awareness [of being in a dream].

{Yea : and I immediately that after the dream-deities started (some years ago) informing me (before I would realize such) that we were in a dream, I realized that I would not thereafter have need to announce that we were in a dream, for they at that point and continuously thereafter (in subsequent dreamings) would consider themselves obliged to inform me of our being in a dream whenever it might conduce to my welfare for me so to recognize. Thereafter (through subsequent years) I took to announcing, instead, that it was a divine world that we were in -- in order by so announcing, to encourage them (hopefully) to praesent themselves in a more appropriate guise, viz., in the luminous splendor wherein deities are generally regarded as capable of displaying their august might. [written Oct 8 2013]}


Such experiences suggest that the dream figure's awareness is not dependent upon the lucid dreamer's awareness; rather, the dream figure's awareness likely continues functionally separate from the lucid dreamer's."


Robert Waggoner : Lucid Dreaming : gateway to the inner self. Moment Point Pr, Needham (MA), 2009.