The Science & Mysticism of Dreams [Resources]

Psychologist Patrick McNamara on the science of dreams.

I love that in his study of dreams he's come to realize that something interesting is going on with precognitive dreams that is worth investigating. The commonality of certain recurring characters in one person's nightmares, as well as this nightmare figure sharing characteristics with others is interesting.

A Guide to the Sleep and Dream Database

https://www.academia.edu/34960217/A_Guid...abase.docx

Intended for newcomers to dream research, this guide offers an introduction to thefunctions of the Sleep and Dream Database (SDDb), an open-access digital archive thatincludes tens of thousands of dream reports, along with survey data about sleep,dreaming, and demographic variables. Readers are shown how to use the SurveyAnalysis and Word Searching functions of the SDDb to study a variety of questionsabout dreaming. The topics discussed here as illustrations include gender and agevariables in dream recall; differences between men and women in the frequency of fearin their dreams; and the meaningful patterns of content in a woman’s long-term dream journal

The Ancient Method of Dreaming

The following is excerpted from The Dreamlife of Families: The Psychospiritual Connection by Edward Bruce Bynum, PhD, published by Inner Traditions.

After the subject had been lying quietly on the healing table for a while, he would find a peaceful place within his mind and then enter into it more deeply, amplifying the feeling while often expressing a specific wish or prayer or expectation as he attempted to go to deep sleep or dream sleep with this notion held firmly in his mind. In this way the conscious mind would make contact with the unconscious depths. Sometimes outside the walls of this healing chamber the priest would chant a sacred song, and sometimes through a small opening in the wall the priest or priestess would direct a verbal message to the half-sleeping and, paradoxically, by this time highly aroused patient. The combination of a dark room with primordial figures moving on the floor, a long passageway, and the priests applying their healing procedures had enormous demand characteristics that influenced the body. They were able to unleash tremendous healing powers from the somatic and the psychological unconscious, which appear to be subtly enfolded into each other. Armed with a powerful image or metaphor, which was often a family or tribal deity, the power of the priest, and the awakened experience, along with the repetitive almost mantra-like message or sankalpa, the initiate would go into a healing sleep. The deep somatic and autonomic energies of the body could then do their work.

This again appears to be at least a functional awareness of the dynamic unconscious. While the ancient Egyptians specifically referred to the unconscious as Amenta and the primeval waters of Nun, other African peoples, particularly those in West Africa, have referred to similar, but not identical, processes they call the Ayanmo concept. The latter is more intimately associated with the existential choices one makes in life even though on some level these choices are not fully known or conscious to the individual. The notions of fate and destiny enter the ­equation along with spirituality and family dynamics, all of which are believed to have their expression in the dreamwork and its influence on the mind and body itself. These were common beliefs in the ancient world.

Voces Nocte

The purpose of this channel is to explore dreams, dreaming, and dream theory through a wide angle lens. We are opening up the conversation to a diverse world of dreamers. Our goal is to further help in the process of bringing conscious intent to the state of dreaming — light to the shadowy corners of this experience we all have access too, each time we drift off to sleep.

We strive to maintain an open and neutral environment as hosts. There are many theories on the process of dreaming and altered states, and we want to hear them all. No information is irrelevant when it comes to dreams. It is in the overlap of individual experiences that we find pathways into the thinking and journeys of the collective.

When is a Sleeper Actually Asleep?

Horowitz and his colleagues at the MIT Media Lab have developed a relatively simple device called Dormio to interface with this unique stage of sleep. Their hypothesis is that this liminal period between wakefulness and sleep is a fount of creativity that is usually lost in the ocean of sleep. The thinking is that if you’re able to descend into that stage of sleep and return to consciousness without descending deeper into sleep, you will benefit from the intensely associative thinking that characterizes the strange microdreams experienced during the transition to sleep.

So far Horowitz has tested the device on 8 subjects and found that it is able to reliably maximize the amount of time users spend suspended between wakefulness and sleep, as well as shape the content of the microdreams they experience. In other words, these MIT researchers have developed a low cost device that allows users to interface with sleep.

[Laird]

When is a Sleeper Actually Asleep?

This time Chris beat ya to it, Sci. http://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-dr...rol-at-mit

Except that waking is long-lasting and dream is momentary, there is no other difference [between them]. To what extent all the vyavahāras [activities or events] that happen in waking seem [at this present moment] to be real, to that extent even the vyavahāras that happen in dream seem at that time to be real. In dream the mind takes another body [to be itself]. In both waking and dream thoughts and names-and-forms [the objects of the seemingly external world] occur in one time [that is, simultaneously].
  -Ramana Maharishi

A Course in Dream Magic by FRATER ARCHER

Overview:

“Make your bed on a Delphic tripod and you will lead a nobler life. Everyone, woman or man, can do it, because sleep is the most readily available oracle of all.”

— Synesius, De Insomniis 144B

The following chapters are the results of my personal explorations into dream magic over the last decades. Many techniques described can also be found in the well-established literature on dreams and lucid dreaming. Surprisingly the most illuminating work I found so far is still the small German booklet ‘Träume Erinnern’ by Christoph Gassmann. I am deeply thankful to the author for his wonderful work.

However, what I couldn’t find in books when I picked up my own experiments with the subconscious side of our lives was a concise instruction that brought together all necessary steps in a single place. That is why I created the following instructions - for my own and personal use first and foremost.

Since then I spoke to many people about their experiences in dreams; many of them found the advise brought together on these pages helpful (originally this used to be a PDF document in German language). Yet, it took me another half decade to understand that the conscious engagement with our dreams actually is the best preparation for thorough ritual work and spirit contact. The skills of actively engaging with our subconscious, being non-judgmental in face of intense emotions, remain objective to our own experiences and - ultimately - find a place for every living creature in our worlds, may they be destructive or constructive, appalling or dulcet, have proven invaluable for my magical works.

It took some time to translate, revise and update the original content, yet it is now all available online, a new Circle coming to live. I also expanded it by a Third Part. This additional section will share more advanced techniques to engage constructively with dominant or aggressive dream beings.

May this work be brought to live by experience.

LVX,

Frater Acher