|
Hallucinations Begone! © Lucy Gilles 2007 “First you must realize that you are dreaming. . . This knowledge automatically changes the dream state into another in which the critical faculties are aroused and operating. . . You may “awaken” in your house for example. If so, check your rooms against their normal arrangement. Anything that does not normally belong there may be an hallucination, part of the usual dreaming process. If you will such images to disappear, they will, leaving you with the basic unhallucinated environment.”1 Jane Roberts It had been a while since I used the technique to “will away hallucinations” as suggested by Seth, channeled by author Jane Roberts. I can still remember the first time, many years ago, when I had come across the suggestion in Robert’s book Seth, Dreams and Projection of Consciousness. I was intrigued by the idea of the “unhallucinated environment.” What was that exactly? If you are in a dream state, and not projecting out-of-body into a physical location, then what are you left with if you will away hallucinations? Is it that empty “grey space” that so many dreamers have experienced, or is it something more? Is it populated with symbols and objects of other people’s dreams? Or populated with other “real” entities? Is that possible? According to Seth, it is: “The basic unhallucinated environment” became one more tantalizing idea that made lucid dreaming all that more appealing – what was “out there” (“in there”?) in the dream state to be discovered? Over the years I played with the technique, always thrilled to notice when objects or the entire dream scene vanished, but for some odd reason, I didn’t seem to remember to apply the technique very often. I look for something to read, in order to reality-check, and I see a red LCD display, like on a digital clock, on a shelf. I don’t even have to look away and then re-look to see the numbers change; they change quickly with every blink of my eyes, proof that I am dreaming. I’m so happy to be lucid! Then, reaching for the latch handle on the wooden door, I think that I should try to meet S (as we had planned to do when we would each next get lucid) but instead (probably due to all the clutter around me) I decide to try Seth’s advice and “will all hallucinations away”. I want to see just how much of the clutter is my own hallucinated imagery and I’m curious to see what will be left, if anything. I’m very pleased that I’ve remembered to do this; I usually don’t remember this technique when lucid, even though I think it is an excellent one. I open the door and step out into a room that is quite large, almost like a gymnasium in size. There are a lot of people around, but none are paying me any attention. I speak loudly, addressing the dream. “Dream, I command all hallucinations to disappear!” I say this again, phrasing it in a different way, perhaps twice more, thinking that I should be more clear, or more commanding. On the third “pronouncement” I think that it would also be helpful if I spin, thinking that if I take my attention off the room and the characters there, it will help me to get rid of my own subconscious dream constructions. I spin counterclockwise, but it feels awkward. I am acutely aware of the feeling of my toe pushing off the hardwood floor as I spin around. I know that I am still too “attached” to the dream. I can still feel my consciousness tied up, entangled, in this dream scene; it’s hard to explain but it is a tangible feeling. I know that my level of lucidity is not high or clear enough to produce instant good results, yet I want to keep trying anyway. I stop spinning, and make my statement again, firmly, then I spin in the other direction. When I stop spinning, I am thrilled to see that the room has changed dramatically. It has become smaller, all white, featureless, and nearly empty, save for a few boxes and some living room furniture off to my right. However, I am surprised to see three men, sitting casually on the living room furniture, watching me. “You three again!” I spontaneously blurt out. “You were left the last time too!” My curiosity piqued, I approach the men and ask, “Who are you? Where do you come from?” Unfortunately, I don’t know what their response, if any, was. Next thing I knew, I was awake. My first thought upon waking was one of triumph. I had remembered to will away hallucinations and it had been successful, despite it not occurring as soon as I had commanded. Though it took me a few tries, I was happy that I had been aware of the reason – that I had been too consciously attached to the dreaming process and I could actually “feel” what that was like, while it was happening, even if I couldn’t later describe it in any adequate or even articulate way. My next thought though, was one of disappointment. I didn’t get answers to my questions! Or if I had, I didn’t consciously remember them. As I scribbled down the dream in my journal, I was struck by how surprised I had been in the dream to see those three men. I remembered how I immediately blurted out “You three again!” In that moment I had recognized them, and I knew, or my dreaming self knew, that the last time I had banished my hallucinations, those three individuals had been left behind. But that memory was one confined to the dream state. I had no waking memory of previously willing away hallucinations in a dream and being left with these three people. Or had I done it earlier in that dream, but did not recall it when awake? It made me wonder how memory “worked” in the dream state and why waking memory and dreaming memory were sometimes cut off from each other. The feeling of recognizing the men was difficult to describe too. It wasn’t a recognition based on physical appearances; their faces were not familiar to me in any way at all. It was a recognition based on a different sensation, a feeling that in some way had a thickness or density to it, as though it was alive or in motion somehow. Very hard to describe, and I could only borrow Seth’s term “feeling-tone” to come close to labeling it. But those three men. My waking memory did recall other dreams where three strangers appeared together. Usually all male, but I knew that, on at least one occasion, one was female. I didn’t think that the female was a different…character…(if I can use the term), but was a different guise used by one of the three individuals. Curiosity getting the better of me, I dug out old dream journals, and in going through a few of them, discovered that I had had many dreams of “three strangers” or “three men” over the last couple of years. Some dreams were non-lucid, but mostly the triad showed up when I was aware I was dreaming. They rarely spoke, when I was lucid. Usually they just observed me, or listened to what I had to say. Oddly, they were more animate when I was non-lucid, participating in my dream scenarios like actors playing their roles. But when I became lucid, aware of my dreaming condition, they became my silent audience, their attention then turned to me. Now I had to wonder. Were these three recurring “characters” simply symbolic of something? Aspects of my own dreaming psyche? Personified dream symbols? Or were they something more? They did remain after I willed away my hallucinations – were they somehow part of the “unhallucinated dream environment”? And if so, what did that make them? Dream constructions belonging to someone else? “Real” individuals able to travel through dream worlds? Denizens of the afterlife? (Some may argue that by spinning I simply created another dream scene, conjuring up more dream hallucinations or subconscious imagery, but as I spun, I maintained the intent that hallucinations vanish, with no specific anticipated outcome.) Because they had remained after I banished hallucinations, because they had a distinctive and somehow familiar “feeling-tone”, and because of their behaviour in previous dreams I began to wonder if the three men really could be more than just inanimate dream symbols. Could my three men be dream guides? Do they show up in my dreams to assist me with my “inner education”? Or are they old pals from another lifetime, checking in on me to see how I’m doing? Will I ever know? How I love all the questions that lucid dreaming evokes! Each one like a stepping stone leading me deeper, onwards and inwards, into the dreaming mind - my own dreaming mind. It is as though each question is a challenge, or a reason, to get lucid again and again, to experience inner senses that differ from waking perception, to meet and greet dream “characters” (who- or what- ever they may be), to explore inner environments, – whether hallucinated or not! And so very much more. References Disclaimer: All material in The Lucid Dream Exchange is the copyright of the respective contributor, unless otherwise indicated. No portion of The Lucid Dream Exchange may be reproduced or used in any way without the expressed written permission of the individual author, or editors. Views and opinions expressed are those of the contributing authors and are not necessarily those of the editors of The Lucid Dream Exchange. ©The Lucid Dream Exchange - www.dreaminglucid.com This page was last updated:
January 27, 2009
|
|