Warm Introductions!

[Allison]

Hi everyone! I’m Allison. I’m a moderator here on the Night Club so feel free to reach out if you’d like.

It’s great to be here and to participate in this community with everyone who is deeply invested in these night time practices. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and hope you will too in this space so we can get to know each other.

As an active dreamer, I am really interested in a few applications of dreaming:

• Creative Potential: As a creative person myself, I’d love to explore ways to develop imagination and visionary ideas through dreaming, as well as supporting others in this same space

• Self Actualization: I’m very interested in exploring the dream states for greater development of self. I’m especially using my own practice to live a “lucid life” with grace, humor, and a lightness quality. Dream practice alongside the meditation and mindfulness practices are a focus of mine

• Data & Technology: Lastly, with a design and technical background, I am super interested in exploring ways technology, data, and pattern recognition can enable a greater number of people to access their dreams in new kinds of modern ways… that don’t feel invasive. It’s a balance to be sure, I am eager to apply this kind of thinking to systems, tools, and technologies over time.

And of course… experiencing some really fun lucid dream adventures too.I’m excited to learn more about everyone here and learning and growing together!

Would love to hear about everyone, feel free to reply here with your own intro.

// Allison //

[ArthurG]

Hi Allison and hey everybody, I’m reposting a version of my intro post that that did not seem to survive a bardo transition between versions of the Night Club software.

My name is Arthur Gillard. I’ve been interested in dreaming since I was a child, and in lucid dreaming since I read an article about Stephen LaBerge’s work in OMNI magazine way back in the 1980’s. I’ve had dozens of lucid dreams since then, though it has not come easy to me (alas). I was quite involved in Ken Wilber’s integral movement for a while, starting with the “Integral Naked” online forum around 2004 onward, which is where I first heard about Andrew Holecek’s work.

I’m active on Twitter as @LucidVirtuality , where I describe myself as a “VR enthusiast exploring the intersections between lucid dreaming, gaming, virtual reality, and related topics.” I was very interested to read Holecek’s paper " Lucid virtual dreaming: Antecedents and consequents of virtual lucidity during virtual threat " and watch his video “Virtual Lucid Dreaming: The Intersection of Consciousness and Technology.” I also read Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep and found it very interesting.

Additional random biographical details: I grew up in Canada; I’ve been living in Sacramento for more than 10 years; I’m currently studying Library and Information Technology at a local city college; I love cats; a friend once described me as “always on the grow,” which will hopefully remain accurate; I’m deeply concerned about the environmental crisis, and excited by the possibilities for rapid evolutionary progress in this potent historical moment.

Night Club is looking quite promising to me and I’m looking forward to participating here and seeing how it unfolds. It’s already been a positive influence–my wife Liz and I are both reading Why We Sleep after I read Andrew Holecek’s review of it here. The book is fascinating and shifting our priorities in a decidedly pro-sleep direction!

[Allison]

Hi Arthur, I’ll repost here how much I enjoy your focus on VR and dreams - an incredibly rich and fascinating territory! … And +1 for Why We Sleep. I honestly believe it should be required reading for everyone on this planet. Truly.

[aholecek]

Thanks for the re-post Arthur, what a rich history – good for you. Much of our Night Club is Integral in spirit, as you will see. “Always on the grow” . . . . love it. Look forward to future interactions with you.

[ArthurG]

p.s. just so people know what I look like, here is a picture of me and my wife Liz taken November 2018. Note that this is a version of my “winter face,” which tends to be beardier than my “summer face.”

[Phil]

Hi, I guess I am yet another Californian in the Night Club! I am originally from a small European country, but live in San Francisco. I teach at a local university but not in the field connected to dreams (though I did publish an academic article on dreams several years ago and attended a conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams in Netherlands in 2011).
I’ve been interested in dreams since I was a child and especially in the elusive practice of lucid dreaming. I hope that being a member of the Night Club will motivate me to increase the frequency of my lucid dreams. I am looking forward to Andrew’s webinars and community discussions. Talk to you all soon!

[aholecek]

Welcome Phil, very much look forward to your offerings, comments, contributions. Share with us more of what you’d like to learn about.

[aholecek]

Great shot Arthur! Can’t wait for the sun to come out, eh?

[ArthurG]

Thanks, Andrew! The good news is that in Sacramento you never have to wait too long for the sun to come out…

[Evan]

Hi everyone! My name is Evan and I live in Bangkok, Thailand, and I’m from America and Canada. I studied dream yoga as part of a buddhist retreat in Canada with a teacher named Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche (one of Andrew’s teachers, I believe) about 15 years ago. I tried the traditional Tibetan techniques for about a month and didn’t have any success and slowly forgot about it. Then about a year ago, I read Andrew’s book was inspired to try lucid dreaming and dream yoga again.

I’m here because I want to use lucid dreaming and dream yoga as more tools to “wake up and grow up,” as Andrew quoted John Welwood as saying in the first Nightclub webinar. I hope being part of a community will strengthen my practice as I learn from Andrew and all of you.

Over the last year, my dream journaling, daytime reality checks and nighttime efforts have waxed and waned. I’ve had a few short lucid dreams, but most of the benefit I’ve gotten so far has been getting a peek into my subconscious by remembering my non-lucid dreams. I hope that by joining this community, I’ll further connect with my natural lucidity and will reap the varied benefits of lucid dreaming and dream yoga as I walk the path together with all of you.

Cheers,
Evan

[Julong]

My name is Bill and I recently moved from Sacramento to live with my brothers in Southwest Colorado near Telluride. I am retiring from almost 40 years in construction. I have been practicing and studying tai chi since the mid 80’s and I teach a few classes in this area.
I have been interested in dreams since I was a kid and lucid dreaming since college. I wrote a paper on it in 1977 which included ideas from Tibetan Buddhism.
I want to pursue the practice to take it to dream yoga,sleep yoga and bardo yoga if life permits. I also would like to work on creativity and as a mirror to see what would be fruitful to work on in my personal life though lucid and dream yoga.
I have Andrew’s audio course and his book on Dream Yoga. I think it is the most useful one out there for me. I have had success in lucid dreaming but it has been inconsistent. More consistent is the feeling of the feeling of the subtle body upon awakening and falling asleep. A feeling of energy running and expansion of the boundaries of the body expanding outward, or the body becoming transparent. Nice but…
I enjoyed the perspective of the illusory body as a complement to dream yoga practice in the latest writings pages.

[alexk]

I’m Alex from Vancouver, Canada.

Currently, I’m completing a PhD on the topic of self-transcendence and technology. I’ve long been fascinated by lucid dreaming and have had many lucid dreams myself. I find them to be incredibly insightful and an untapped area for people to explore themselves and the nature of consciousness.

Through this group, I hope to deepen both my practice and understanding of lucid dreaming and dream yoga, and then bring that into my work with positive technology.

I’m looking forward to taking this journey with you all!

[Allison]

@Evan Looking forward to seeing more of your experiences in the Tibetan Traditions permeate the conversations here on the Night Club! Keep up consistent practice is one of the common themes, especially in a modern world. I’m especially interested in hearing more from you and others on how they approach their dream life each day.

@Julong Hi Bill! Another Californian, it’s nice to have you. I’m eager to see the paper that you wrote if you are willing to share with us here! Creativity is a big theme for me too, an active focus for my own practices. I believe this will be a great place to share practices to stay consistent, yet balanced. Balance is important, too.

@alexk How incredible! Your area of study is fascinating. I am deeply interested in how technology can play a bigger role in all of these practices, so exciting to connect with you there.

// Allison //

[JennyJohannesson]

Hi. My name is Jenny and I live in Oregon with my husband and two cats. I’m in a sangha online that I love called Dharmachanics. It’s a private community on Facebook and we meet in Zoom rooms to meditate together and have group discussions. I meditate daily and read a lot of things on non-duality. I try to practice daily/constantly/as much as possible identifying as the open, empty, cognizant space of awareness instead of being caught in and identified as the thoughts and emotions. I’ve made art all my life. I’m in a mindful art making group that is amazing called Drawing Your Own Path. I post drawings sometimes on Instagram at @papertigerstudio . I have participated in another online community for over a year called Eat Right Now- it’s a mindful eating group. They use the same platform Night Club is using and it’s been an amazing thing. I struggled with food addiction for a long time and doing that program and journalling there daily has helped me to get free from binge eating. Which is wonderful.
Someone in my sangha is an avid lucid dreamer and I have been interested in it for a while. The more I begin to feel and understand that the outside world isn’t actually ‘outside’- the more it starts to seem like a dream and the more I become interested in lucid dreaming. So I am hoping that being here will continue to move me towards waking up in my dreams.
Also- I know @ArthurG because he used to be in my sangha and I am super delighted to be in a community with him again.

Jenny

[ArthurG]

Likewise – it’s great to see you here, Jenny! Welcome!

[David]

Hi everyone, my name is David Clapper. I’m from the Netherlands, although I spent the first 18 years of my life in Zimbabwe. I’m 57 years old. My wife Myriam and I have been married for 33 years, and we have 4 grown up kids. I have been interested in dreams and dreaming for going on 40 years now and have even had a few lucid dreams along the way. Now that the kids are independent and I’m out of the corporate grind, I have the freedom to return the explorer me I put in a freezer all those years ago. My interest in dream yoga is a combination of my interest dreaming and non-duality (especially the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj) and was sparked by Andrew’s book on dream yoga when I realised that resting in the clear-light mind is basically the same as self-realisation. I’ll be attending Andrew’s Dream Yoga retreat in France in October of this year. I’m super excited about this new adventure and finding a community of like-minded souls to share the journey with.

[ponderer57]

Hi Arthur – Just waving hello. It’s MaryW (ponderer57), & I just joined (at your recommendation).
Cheers & hugs – M.

[amorsesomtelcom]

Guess I should say hello too…

I’m Alan Morse, a happy hermit living in very rural western Maine with my dawg, house cat, informal barn cats, and 15 ducks to keep me smiling…plus all the bears, skunks, foxes, coyotes, deer, moose, mice, squirrels, raccoons, porcupines, mink, weasels, otters, herons, geese, loons, snapping turtles, bald eagles, ravens, tweetie birds and other wise sentient beings (all once my mother!) who move regularly through my woods. Yup…informal Buddhist, born a Quaker, variously a house builder, oceanographer, computer wirer, physics teacher, commercial press operator, journalist, fork lift driver, graphic designer, and bum. Father late in life to a little girl from Anhui…who is now more American than me.

Born in upstate NY, passed through Ohio to college in Boston and more additional education than I needed in Oregon and finally Maine. I’ve been here in my woods 27 years now and plan to remain here ‘til I die.

As a child, I had night terrors several times a month. My parents could not wake me, and it wore them down locking themselves in a room with me to keep me safe, since when dreaming I was active and physically wild. They even put me in an inpatient sleep clinic for a week when I was 9. Mostly grew out of it by my late teens, but the intensity of those experiences left me forever curious about the night world and sensations lurking below consciousness.

Forty plus years ago, in my late 20’s, I joined a dream group, stuck with it for awhile, and then forged off on my own once it started feeling ingrown and self-conscious. Been playing with it solo since. Enjoy the psychology, but now jealously guard most of my personal nocturnal adventures to myself. Not a virtuoso lucid dreamer, nor do I pursue it regularly, but I’ve used it frequently for many years in a most non-stressful, relaxed and enjoyable fashion. Love to explore my dreamscapes…and enjoy almost as much tickling my dog’s toes and ears as she dreams at my side.

[ArthurG]

Hi Mary, great to see you here! I hope you enjoy the site.

hugs and kittens,
ArthurG

[ArthurG]

Hi Alan, welcome to the club! I’m envious of how surrounded by animals you are. I grew up in Nova Scotia and was briefly in Maine a couple of times growing up. It’s quite beautiful.

Also I just want to remind you and everyone of the First Rule of Night Club: you talk to everyone about it and encourage them to join! The more the dreamier.

~ArthurG