There’s a few Night Clubbers engaged in a really important dialogue in a separate thread that I thought would be really valuable for us all to contribute to in it’s own topic - Goals.
We have a few folks actively jumping into topics here and there, but for this one I want to encourage everyone to participate. There are no wrong answers and it’s so incredible when we can learn from and support each other. Active participants and quiet observers alike, let’s learn more about each other!
So for this thread, let’s all answer four questions:
Your Name (and location if you are comfortable)
A sentence or two describing your dream goals. Why is it important to you?
A challenge or blockage you are currently facing in your practice.
The title of a dream that has a lasting impact on you. (Just the title for now).
Share as little or as much as you’d like and if you only want to answer some, that’s ok too!
Name: Barry (Northeast USA) Dream Goals: Eliminate the curtains between waking and dreaming. Challenge: Some nagging physical problems but nothing I can’t overcome Significant Dream: Banging on the window urging me to wake up.
To greatly improve my sleep – this has become a very significant goal since I started reading Why We Sleep. Dream recall and dream practices have taken a backseat for the time being.
I want to experience dying in a lucid dream; this brings up fear even though I’ve died in non-lucid dreams, so in case I chicken out I have a secondary goal to ask the dream to “show me the highest!”
Inspired by Jennifer Dumpert’s work, I am working on increasing my awareness of liminal dreaming (hypnagogia/hypnopompia), extending my time in that state, and going deeper into it. I’m thinking of this as “nibbling at the edges of dreamland.”
Challenge: I have become aware that my ongoing issues with shoulder pain are related to sleeping on my side, a deeply entrenched habit. I’m working on increasing my ability to sleep on my back, which has been very challenging for me. Along with that (and made worse by this issue) I’m not getting quite enough sleep. Until I’m consistently getting very close to ideal sleep, I’m putting most dream-related practices on the back burner.
Significant Dream: hmm…maybe “The Elvin Dimensions” or “Trying to Swim Across the Ocean.” Or maybe a dream I can’t currently find a record of but would probably title something like “Games of Increasing Complexity and Consciousness.” I think I’ll go with that last one for now. ~ArthurG
niki in San Francisco
dream goals: lucidity as part of a larger goal of lucid living and dying. I just love the poetry of dreams. I aspire to engage with a spiritual teacher in my dreams. I have heard of peopled doing this, and always wished it would happen to me, sigh.
challenges: I remember my dreams fairly frequently and easily but lucidity has been rare.
significant dream: the Beloved’s hatbox and the melting metal
significant recurring dream theme / experience: over the last 10 years or so, I sometimes dance in my dreams. free of gravity, I dance in the air, not flying but hovering. I love the feeling of freedom and grace within those dreams, and the residue of them.
I’m Katie and I live in Colorado. I have been lucid dreaming spontaneously since childhood, though more actively and intentionally within the past ten years (I’m 32).
Recently I attended one of Andrew’s retreats and since then my intention for lucidity has strengthened and my lucid dreams have become more frequent and more yogic. I have had two experiences of awareness in deep sleep (I think). My intention is to go deeper and deeper into the mind and experience the clear light mind consistently, to wake up to the true nature of reality and to help others to do the same.
My greatest challenge right now is waking lucidity. I find there to be many more distractions in the day than in the night.
Dream with Lasting Impact: Divine Bonding on an Intergalactic Throne
I look forward to connecting with those of you on the Dream Yoga and Sleep Yoga paths of spiritual awakening!
~ArthurG