| 5 | Healing Benefits, Sacred Space, 21 Breaths Practice with Red Pearl Visualization

5:04PM May 11, 2024

Speakers:

Q

Chelsea Waves

Katie Love

Bodi Mack

joann parks

louisa knowles

Andrea Loreto

Keywords:

lucid dream

dreaming

lucid dreaming

sleep

dream

katie

lucid

practice

share

feel

sacred space

experience

bed

pearl

wake

creating

question

light

red

people

What is this our fifth I think it's our fifth meeting or or get together so welcome. And, of course, if there's anybody curious about the last four months that we've been gathering and what information we've put out, there is recordings so. Very good. And if you have questions, we're going to have a q&a at the end. We've got a hole that we do that's really exciting. Hoping to see if anybody had lucid dreams in the last month so we really like celebrating anytime we can with anyone that's had a lucid dream or even especially somebody that's had a lucid dream for the first time so we'll get to share that in the poll later on. So without any further ado, Chelsea.

Hi, everybody. Good. To see you. Um, so I just wanted to share a little bit about the topics that we talked about last time. So as Bodie mentioned, there are recordings online and Elissa Can you put the website in the chat? And just so you all know, you have to actually go to the very bottom of the webpage to be able to watch the recordings from our last sessions. And the last time we talked about state checks, Dream initiated lucid dreaming also called dial. We also talked about wake initiation, initiated lucid dreaming, which is wild. And yeah, if you weren't able to join us last time, go ahead and watch those recordings and we have Katie next

Katie, you're muted. Oh, thank you. Hello, everyone. Nice to see you all. First, I just I want to share that next month we're going to have our lucidity induction group on the fourth Saturday instead of the second Saturday. So next month, it'll be on June 22 at 11am Mountain Time, and that is because it's the same. The second Saturday is during Andrews retreat at bail the Dream Yoga Retreat. So Chelsea and I are going to be there maybe some of you will be there as well. So we're shifting the date on that and there'll be a reminder email sent about that as well. And I also I'm just going to share the group intentions that we have in the chat so that anyone who's new to the group can look at what our collective intentions are. Or if you want to review them. They'll be there in the chat as a couple of slides. Okay, great.

All right. So I'm going to share about the healing benefits of lucid dreaming. So at our last gathering, somebody actually asked a question, what are the benefits of lucid dreaming? And we kind of listed them off just like from our different experiences as lucid dreamers, and I thought it'd be nice to have a little bit more of a container around it. And as I started to explore this topic, I realized there are so many benefits to lucid dreaming. And so for this particular share, I'm just going to focus on the healing benefits of it. And so the first one that I'm going to start with is grief. So, grief is actually something that we can work with in lucid dreams, because once someone has died, that doesn't end the relationship the body is no longer here, but the relationship can continue. So through lucid dreaming, we can create an intention to meet somebody who has died and our dreams and there could be resolution of some sort if that wasn't able to happen in waking life or while they were alive, or it could be sharing time with them. I know that I do this with my mom quite often. She has turned into a dream sign for me, which is great. And sometimes I choose not to wake up so that I can just be with her and that and I feel like it's a way of continuing my relationship with her and really keeping her alive. And then another piece of that is healing with our ancestors and ancestral work and so we can actually go into our dreams, we can make an intention to meet our ancestors and create more connection with our ancestors through dream work. Another benefit is really creating a more of a connection between your mind and your body. And through doing this, we actually can heal our sleep. So we all know that sleep is really important and a lot of us choose to kind of put that off to the side but with lucid dreaming, we have to be able to sleep right to be able to dream. And so in order to be able to sleep we have to really make sleep hygiene or priority, which then we are able to experience I know I've experienced this myself when we are going throughout our day and really paying attention to what we choose to do like when we choose to eat when we choose to exercise. When we choose to go to bed when we choose to turn off our screens. We can see how those things impact our sleep. We can actually experience how they impact our sleep. And so that to me has been revelatory and really is experiencing even more so the connection between body and mind we have the ability to transcend any kind of physical limitation that we may have. So if we're not able to see in this life then we are able to see if we are not able to walk we are able to walk I have a really sweet story about working with a hospice client who was only able to be in bed. And I actually worked with her a little bit in her dream. She brought it up with me. She said Is there a way that you think a creative way that I can experience walking again and and she actually ended up running in her dreams and she I don't think that she was necessarily lucid. But she made the intention to do that. And she was able to do that and it was really beautiful. To see the joy that she was able to experience from that. Also, increased self compassion. I think this is really healing right? So not only in our daily life, also with grief. This is also really important and this is something that I focus on in my grief work with clients is self compassion. And so with lucid dreaming, we're becoming more aware of our mind and to create relationship with our mind, we become more aware in waking life. And in order to be self compassionate with ourselves. We have to recognize our thoughts. If we're not able to recognize our thoughts, and it's really difficult to be compassionate towards ourselves. And so lucid dreaming can really support us and recognizing what we're thinking, what we're experiencing and then create a bigger container to really embrace that. Another one is resolving nightmares, and reoccurring dreams. So we can look at our dreams after dream journaling and go through and be like what are we what reoccurring dreams are happening here? A really common one that I hear all the time is trying to find a bathroom. Anybody ever experienced that one? Yeah, right. And so know, I've experienced it too. And so we can look at that and be like, Okay, what is that? What can be curious about it be curious about the reoccurring dream. Why is that showing up for me? And then we can become lucid in the dream. Maybe maybe finding a toilet can be a dream sign, right? It can make us lucid, and then we can go and find the toilet if we still need to find the toilet in our dream or we can wake up right? And so looking at our reoccurring dreams can also be really healing because there might be something going on in the subconscious that we're not aware of. And that can be a way of us being curious and looking at that particular point and and maybe healing that in our dreams. Another one is nightmares. I've experienced this in my life. And what a nightmare is for me is a dream that doesn't have resolution that causes fear or anxiety. Right? And so nightmares for me have felt so real right? Like we get to really experience what it really feels like to be in fear. And through that our ego is just so tight and contracted and doesn't believe that it could possibly be a dream. And the beauty of lucid dreaming with this is that we can recognize that it's a dream. And we can turn around and we can look at whatever is chasing us. We can recognize this is a common one for me. All be in my dream. And I will be thinking I can't wake up. I'm in a dream and I can't wake up. Oh no. What am I going to do and because I have these these dreams in which I think I've woken up and then I haven't woken up and then it happens over and over and over again. And what I've realized for myself is Oh That in itself is a dream sign. If I can recognize that I'm having that thought I can't wake up in the dream that in itself can be Oh, yes, a false awakening. Exactly. So false awakenings can be a dream sign, but that thought of, oh, I can't wake up. What am I going to do? I can't wake up. I'm stuck in this dream. It's a dream sign. And so that's what I'm personally working with. Right now. That thought in itself can be so scary for me that I won't be able to wake up that I won't be able to interact with other people again, that it creates such a contraction. So look at your own lives and see like are there reoccurring dreams that you're having or their nightmares that you're having? How could you work with that and you're lucid dreaming. And then you can also work with phobias. So I was curious what were the top five right now because I know this like changes over time depending on the generation that is alive at the moment. And right now it's heights, snakes, public speaking, spiders, and the fear of social interactions. Really interesting, right? Yeah, a lot of compassion around that for me. I'm I'm guessing I don't have any research about this, but that could be because of what we experienced with COVID. Right. And so the dream world can be this safe container to experience things that we're afraid of, like snakes, like public speaking. Like maybe going into a party and failing into a room or maybe going on a date. You can practice going on a date.

And so we have a space to really practice those things and maybe heal those things a little bit so that in waking life they're not so scary and then the last one is joy and playfulness. I also experienced this in my life. I think in the last gathering somebody brought up that lucid dreaming has brought a lot of joy in their life while they've maybe felt depressed or anxious. And I've also had that experience too. It's really given me a sense of purpose and joy in itself and fun to be able to go into the lucid dream and to be able to experience something that I can experience in waking life. I can't experience a waking life but I don't think that I can experience in waking life sometimes right like flying or swimming in the ocean with sea creatures, or meeting up with people that I have a special relationship with, like my mom. And so it can bring a lot of joy and purpose to life as well, which is so important. All right. And now we have Bodi.

All right, thank you Chelsea. Awesome. So Chelsea just brought brought us these benefits for lucid dreaming in the area of health. You know what's how it can benefit us with our health. There's so much just so many benefits that spanned other categories like spiritual, our spiritual selves and other categories that in in future gatherings or when we meet we'll share some of those too. So today was just a slice of the pie, just dealing with health that we shared. And so we look forward to hearing more about other benefits in other areas that lucid dreaming brings us. So right now I'm going to share about creating sacred space and how this is important for inducing lucid dreams. So this is going to parallel sleep hygiene. So, you know good sleep hygiene is probably going to be a great sacred space, creating sacred space. Are there going to be you know, a lot of the same things. So, we're going to you're going to hear maybe a few things that we may be mentioned before in past meetings or gatherings. So but but basically there's this baseline of creating sacred space like you know, a clean a clean sleep area or bedroom that's not cluttered. So that's kind of sleep hygiene, but it's also the beginning of creating sacred space. So there's there's others right now, how about, can you come up Can all of you come up with anything that you think is helpful in creating sacred space for the that helps create the lucid dream. So if you have something that really works for you, or something you do that create sacred space, maybe write it in the chat right now, while I'll continue to mention a few of the things but we'd like to hear what do you guys come up with? So go ahead and write that in the chat right now. Anything you can think of that creates sacred space. So a rented Rinpoche Lama Tenzin, he mentions things and, you know, big thing that he has brought to us is about lucid dreaming about Dream Yoga and stuff and he starts out with Yeah, a very clean, not cluttered space. He as well as others have have mentioned having a dream journal beside your bed. It's just so that you you see the dream journal and you're like, Yeah, I want to have a lucid dream tonight. And that dream journal really is readily available with a pen and you're just it's like, part of that sacredness that you're creating. So that he also talks about lighting. So lighting being important so along with paralleling sleep hygiene is not having bright lights but soft lights and now there's like some more scientific studies with a the light should be kind of reddish, you know, and things like that. We can go deeper into that and stuff but it doesn't really activate the Wake stuff. So he talks about something that maybe simulates like a candle of course, you wouldn't want to go to sleep with a lit candle in your bedroom. Probably not a good idea, just safety factor. But you know, maybe something that's battery operated is something that looks like a candle and so and then one other thing he mentioned is is having images of like, of something that that is important to us that as far as you're naming your like lucid dreaming, you know that category. So maybe a picture of somebody that you study. It could be like a picture of somebody who has brought the the benefits of dreaming of lucid dreaming to to us and you just like you mean you've read that person's books or something, maybe something at the end of the bed that you know when you fall asleep you're seeing something that reminds you. Oh, yeah, I want to have a lucid dream tonight. So creating maybe an altar or something on a shelf that has maybe some images of perhaps a deity that helps you with lucid dreaming. Maybe it's a part of your Buddhist practice or a practice that you just do. And I've even seen these figurines hung from the ceiling in the bedroom. I bought one once it was at a like an antique store, but it was from Tibet. And it was a figure of of a dakini which is in the Tibetan tradition like this, this beam that helps you in the dream world it protects you. And so, you know, I've seen people have these little like wooden figurines of a flying beam that it just reminds you Oh yeah, I'm gonna be protected. I am going to you know, I do want to have a lucid dream. So there's a lot of things you can add to what makes your space sacred and you know, reminds you of how sacred or important lucid dreaming is. So right now, Chelsea, if you could help me out, what do we have in the Do we have anything in the chat where people have shared about sacred space? We

do. So we have dreamed talisman, asked Manjushri for help praying for others mantras, crystals, water lighting, having the five elements represented on my altar. And Altair, in my bedroom said that the whole room is a shrine, clearly stating the intention to wake up in my dream so that I may benefit others. Having a dream journal by the bed, somebody changed their lighting for the evenings. Good ventilation, fresh air darkness, blue blocking lights for the eyes and darkening shades, sleep mask, statues, and then spaciousness. uncluttered space, red light. And I also just wanted to share Kim, I saw your question about lighting. I don't know Bodie might have some information about that we can talk about in the q&a. But it would be a great question for the sleep doctor. as well.

Beautiful. Thank you, Chelsea. Fantastic. You guys came up with an amazing amount of, of what creates sacred space. So thank you so much for sharing those things that you're working with that create sacred space and, and yeah, it's sleep hygiene as well. It's so beautiful. You know, having your bedroom be just for sleeping that is creating sacred space right? Wonderful. Now, we can all do that i unlimited in my space. Here where we're at. So my office is in my bedroom. Now I'm working on creating like a curtain it's going to create like a you know, where kind of, you know, separates my workspace from my sleep sleep space. I also you know, you can do things like that. If you can not watch TV or not have a big screen, at the foot of your bed and watch, you know, TV from your bed. That would be more creating sacred space. And we can't always do that if we're in a tight quarters, but sometimes we have to have you know, dual purpose kind of stuff but creating sacred spaces. Yeah, that bed is used for sleeping for lucid dreaming. And so the more you can create that the better for lighting you know bringing down the lights in the overall house about you know, two hours before going to bed is ideal. And then the bedroom. I turn on a really low soft like warm light as it's getting closer to bedtime. You know, of course sleep hygiene I'm off of my computer is is you know, ideally would be two hours before bed. Don't always do that. But definitely try and go for that one hour mark so that your eyes start dimming down getting ready. So that's that's a part of creating that sacred space is like bringing the lighting down. And then when it does get closer to two, I'm going to bed or and then during the night i use i personally use a headlamp that has a button that just turns on a red light just red LED so that I don't have anything braid if I have to get up and go to the bathroom. So that keeps my sacred space. I even if I wake up in the night, or if I wake up and I'm like yes, this is a dream. I need to write my journal. I want to make sure that I remember it rather than wait until morning. So I'll turn on that red headlamp light. And then I can write my journal. Put it away. And then and then that's a great opportunity of course to to do dream induction be prepared. Okay, I'm going back to sleep. Okay. I want to have a lucid dream. And you can even like go over that dream you just had even though it wasn't lucid and, and go through it and then add on Oh, and then I became lucid. You know so that's, you know, but that sleep. Sacred Space is is really key. Now you might not in the middle of the night you wake up you might not see that altar, or those items that you've placed at the foot of the bed or something that are grates your sacred shrine or or something but your your subconscious knows it's there. It knows that you have a picture of of something or pictures of important things that encourage you to have lucid dreams. It your you know it's there. So having those things can just help enforce this is a really important time. It's where I can have lucid dreams. They can do amazing things. And so with that, I think that is what I have to say about sacred space. Look forward to if you guys have more questions, there'll be q&a later if you have questions about creating sacred space or some ideas that you want to bounce off. Great. So they'll be that time in just a little bit. And so with that, I'll pass it on to Katie.

Thanks Bodie. And thank you everyone for your great suggestions. I took some notes. I especially liked the good ventilation, having the air element be clean and clear in this space. So thank you to whoever said that. Great, so my intention for today is to share practice. Some of you may know the practice. It's the 21 breath meditation with the focus on the red pearl in the throat the visualization, feeling isolation of the red pearl. So my intention is to share a little bit of context about the practice, how we do it, why we do it, and then to actually guide the group in the practice as well. And then to have you guide yourself in the practice as a way of practicing for sleep. So I also want to say that at the end, there will be space for q&a about the practice, but I just want to invite you to hold your questions for that until the end. Just so that you get the big picture context and the experience of it first. So the 21 breath meditation is it's a settling meditation that helps us to settle down our minds and our bodies before we go to sleep. And it also has an element of dissent to it. Where there's a presence in the throat chakra with the red Pearl as we are descending into sleep, so we're trying to maintain our awareness in that throat chakra as We're descending into sleep. This practice is done as the lying down practice and it doesn't have to be done lying down but it's it's good to do it laying down for a few reasons. One is that when we do lying down meditations, we are actually preparing ourselves to be more lucid in our dreams. Because when we're dreaming we're lying down or horizontal so if we can do lying down meditations while we're awake, then it increases our chances of being able to do meditations or just simply be lucid in the dream state. Another benefit to lying down meditations is that they're less activating than seated meditations. So if we're doing this practice, for example, right before bed, or in the middle of the night, and we want to be kind of loose enough to go to sleep. It can be a nice way of keeping our minds a little bit tighter, but having our bodies be a little bit looser in the practice. Another benefit that I enjoy with lying down meditations is that we can do them in our beds with our blankets over us. So if you live in a cold place, and you don't want to get up and have a little chill in the night you can stay cozy in your bed. And I want to say while this is done as aligned on meditation, you can do it in any position really and what I would suggest is just to notice what is true for you about sleep. So if you are if you're a light sleeper and you know getting up in the night or doing things that are more activating wakes you up enough to where it's hard to go back to sleep, then maybe consider doing some lying down meditation, especially in the night. If you're naturally a heavier sleeper and you kind of tend to fall asleep when you're meditating in the night then maybe consider sitting up or even just propping yourself up a bit with some pillows behind you while you're doing this meditation or any other practice in the night. So play with that balance of like how to kind of have a complimentary practice to whatever your natural style is of activation or looseness. And this practice, I'm going to guide it in such a way where you can lie down on your back. So if you do have a space for that, I'll invite you to move to that space that's in just a couple of moments here. You can get that setup if you want. And if you don't, if you just want to do this sitting or you don't have the space for it, that's fine too. Either way, but the the classic instruction for it is to lie down on your back with your hands on your lower belly so that you're connected to your body. And to your breathing while you're doing the practice. And you can have your legs straight out in front of you or you can have your soles of your feet on the bed or on the ground so that your knees are pointing up to the ceiling. Either way, and you know what's interesting about this position is what I've noticed is sometimes I wake up in this position from sleep, and when I'm in this position while I'm sleeping. I have a high likelihood of being more lucid in my dreams. It's hard for me to fall asleep in this position where I'm on my back face up. But sometimes I find myself on it in the middle of the night. And generally when I do when I wake up in that position, I've had a lucid dream or a very vivid dream. So there's something about this face up position that really invokes more lucidity. And again, you know, sometimes like last night I was working with what position to be in that wasn't too activating but it was activating enough and I found that I was having a lot of trouble actually falling back asleep lying on my back. So I rolled over onto my side and did the meditation that way. So I just really want to invite you to have that freedom to move the position of your body to complement whatever meditation practice you're doing. And to get that that right balance between when you're doing all this myRA? Yeah to get that right balance between enough wakefulness to have some lucidity and dream but enough sleepiness to be able to actually go to sleep. Okay, so So we do this practice because, as I said, it's a great way to settle the mind before we go to sleep. Also, as a way of descending bringing that waking consciousness with us into the sleep or dream state, so actually bringing lucidity with us from the waking state and also to bring awareness to and to activate the the throat chakra which is in the Tibetan Dream Yoga traditions the seat of dreams. So the the Hindus or T glaze of consciousness, when we're awake are in our third eye. When we dream they move to our throat and when we sleep they move to our heart. So for the purposes of this practice, we're going to be focusing on the throat for dreaming. Great, so if you do have a place to lay down, you can you can get that set up now and as you're getting that set up, I will just give first some oral verbal instructions of the practice, not a guided practice but just describing it. And then I will guide the practice specifically for seven breaths and then I'll invite you to guide yourself doing it for seven breaths. And then at the end, we'll have some space for q&a. So wherever you're going to be for your practice, I invite you to move there now. And the instructions are to place your hands on your lower belly as you lie on your back. And if you're sitting up that's fine too. You can place your hands on your lower belly if that's comfortable for you.

And then the counting will be done. In one of a few ways. One, one thing you can do is you can actually count out loud with your voice. You can count silently internally in your head or you can use your fingers to count or you can come up with your own creative way to count the breath will be happening in through the nose and out through the nose or mouth whichever is more comfortable for you. And as you breathe, you want to really be present with the breath and really feel it in your body. And then when you complete the breaths we'll do seven for this first practice and then 21 For the second one. When you complete your breaths. They'll bring your awareness gently to a red pearl of light in your throat in your throat chakra at the base of your throat and you will visualize imagine and feel with this gentle presence not too tight that Teague lay or pearl of light in your throat and then you'll gently relax into the pearl. Like imagine that you're becoming one with that pearl that you're bringing your awareness into that and you're melting or releasing into that pearl as you're falling asleep. That final step is is a little bit more advanced. So if that feels like inaccessible, don't worry about it. Just focus on the first part of the practice. And I actually I do have a visual of of a red pearl. So I'm going to bring that up just so that those of you who haven't worked with this practice before can see and you can you can visualize the red pearl of light however it you know makes sense to you and however you see it but I'll just share this visual just in case you want. One example

so it can be glimmering or it can be softer light, it can be a little larger, a little small, but you want to visualize it like at the base of your throat, the throat chakra here all right. Okay, so I'm going to now guide the practice for seven breaths. So I invite you to take your position wherever you are seated or lying down and to bring your hands over your lower belly first, simply feel the breath in your body in your lower belly. Feel the breath as it naturally is through that feeling, connect with your body and with the present moment. Here and now.

Now we'll begin breathing seven breaths together. I will count the pacing for these first seven.

breathe in breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out breathe in. Breathe out breathe in. Breathe out breathe in. Breathe out breathe in. Breathe out breathe in. Breathe out and now bring your awareness to this red pearl of light in your throat chakra at the base of your throat and if you can visualize it, see it. If you have trouble with visualization, simply imagine it. Know that it is there. And most importantly, feel it feel the presence of this red light this red jewel. And have your awareness gently with it. Not too tight, not too loose. too gentle. presence with the red pearl in your throat.

If you notice your attention drift away from presents with the PERL. Simply bring it back whenever you notice that

and feel yourself almost softening relaxing with an into the pearl. Feel that you're not separate from the pearl it is a part of you and you are a part of it.

Third,

so now I invite you to once again do this practice but now with your own breathing rate. So breathing out in and out at the pace that feels most comfortable for you for 21 breaths. And when you complete the 21 breaths at your own pace, once again bring your awareness to this visualization, feeling isolation of the thread pearl in your throat and I'll call us back to the group in a few minutes. So begin Now

Now wherever you are in the practice. gently relax your attention on whatever you are focusing on. And if it feels good, you can stretch your arms and legs if your eyes are closed, gently blink them open

and slowly in your own timing. Come back to the group

turning on your screens when you are ready so that we know that you're back

Thank you Katie. That was beautiful. Bodie. think we have the poll next your favorite part?

Halloween. Yeah, thank you JD. So lucid dreaming induction here we go with a poll that are good my glasses on. All right, there you go guys. So, we we asked we invite you to please look at these descriptions of the since the last time that we met in April. So which one fits for you never had a lucid dream. That's why we're here. That's why we're all here is is to help those people help people that have never had a lucid dream. So we welcome you. And you're unsure This is a new one that we put in unsure, possibly had a lucid dream like you're not sure we've noticed that there's been some people that have mentioned that and so we wanted to include that in the poll this time. Another one is had my first lucid dream in the last month since we met last. Please if that is true, let us know we like to celebrate so that's that's one of the choices What else we got unsure possible had my first lucid dream in the past month. So So kind of like that last that other question but more specifically to this last month have had a lucid dream for a while. You've been lucid dreaming for a while and did not have a lucid dream this month since our last gathering April 13. That's a choice and a possibility. Another and last one is have had lucid dreaming for a while you've been doing it for a while and did have a lucid dream since our last gathering April 13 So while you guys are are licking showing us which one of those fits well your experience let's see i i have to go out get really close to the screen to see this. So I mean, Chelsea is going to help out where how many people have have done it so far, Chelsea,

so we have about 29 out of 39 which is pretty good and we just got up to 30 So maybe we could wait about 20 more seconds. So if you're still on the fence, we could enter those in and then I can read the results to all of you. Yes please.

Yeah. All

right. 54321 complete. All right. So let's see here. Two people have never had a lucid dream. Nine people are unsure possibly have had a lucid dream. One person had their first lucid dream in the past month.

One person unsure possibly had their last lucid their first lucid dream and the past month. And then nine people have been lucid dreaming for a while and did not have a lucid dream since our last gathering. And then another nine people it's interesting. We have three that are nine out of 31 that have been lucid dreaming for a while and did have a lucid dreaming dreams since our last gathering.

Fantastic. All right. So once again, we have someone who had their first lucid dream and so the numbers are increasing as we all meet together. And some of us it just the group energy is inspiring. These people that have not had a lucid dream and they really want it and so fantastic. We really want to celebrate those people that had their first lucid dream. Yes. Awesome. Congratulations. So and maybe in the q&a. It that person who did have their first lucid dream this last month. If you want to just you know come in when you we'll give you a little opportunity to say who you are and and, you know, just so we can celebrate with you. That'd be great. If you're shy, that's okay too. And so you know what's really great is that this poll is showing that there is a good number of you that are continuing to have lucid dreams your your you are doing the dream induction you must be doing that. The day practices you must be doing state checks. And so congratulations you're continuing to do that and the benefits that are going to come with those you know, continuing to practice the dream lucidity. Just going to be amazing. So and this is great, because in this poll, different from the last ones we've added some questions so it really illuminated that there are some of you that aren't sure like was that a lucid dream? I'm not sure. So hopefully we can maybe in the future somehow we can help to have you understand was that a lucid dream? Was it not? How close are you getting? Because probably if you're you're guessing, like, I'm not sure you're you're getting if if it wasn't a lucid dream, you're probably getting really close. So that's great. But there it seems like we can bring up maybe some answers to help those people that did answer that that way in this poll. Katie and Chelsea, do you notice anything? Anything you guys want to comment on the poll?

Nothing that I want to comment on the poll, but I'd love to move into the q&a section. Do you feel ready for that? Yeah. Okay, great. All right. So now we're gonna have q&a and q&a is also an opportunity for you guys to share. I don't know why that poll came back up. Sorry about that. Yeah, it's also an opportunity for all of you guys to share so like Bodie said, if you're unsure if you had a lucid dream or not, you're welcome to come on and share your dream. And we can try to figure out together if it seemed like a lucid dream or not for you. Like Bodhi said, if you if you had your first lucid dream, and you want to come on and share your first lucid dream, because that can be so exciting. Absolutely come online and share that if you have a contribution. Feel free to share that as well that has to do with lucid dreaming. And I also just wanted to reiterate that next month. Our gathering is going to be moved from the second Saturday into the fourth Saturday or sorry, let me look at the date. Yeah, the fourth Saturday, which is June 22. And that's going to be at the same time. So I just wanted to say that in case I know some new folks came on in between and and the time is at 10am Pacific. And I am going to also put our emails in the chat right now in case folks have to leave we love to hear feedback. So there are emails and who would like to share who has any questions. It's totally open. You can raise your hand using the Raise Your Hand feature you can put in the chat. We can also start with the chat as well. I think there was a couple questions in there see?

So we do have a question or wait about the lighting. Let me see if I can find it from Kim, about the lighting. Bodie. Do you want to try to answer this at all because you had brought it up in your section? Could you kindly share the research on lighting and dream induction particularly sleep hygiene, particularly different Kelvin scale red slash warm to blue Cool, associated with delta theta etc mind states and brain states etc. Oh, wow.

Yeah, that's a that's huge that would, that would take a long time to probably answer and stuff like that, but the research is out there and you hang around with Andrew. long enough, you'll you'll probably get those answers and you know, get them you'll probably hear you know, like the sleep doctor. You know, talk about it. So if you're in nightclub you're gonna get that information a lot, just to slightly answer the question. So, the the idea is the closer you get to sleep the sleep hygiene area that we're talking about bringing. So the Calvin for for Daylight is 5600 So there you go. There's a piece of science 40 5600 So that's going to be really bright, you know, bright light that's what we don't want to sleep sleep hygiene for creating sacred space. So we bring it down to a more warmer light. This is going to activate that part of our brain that remembers that it's nighttime it's almost time for bed so it you know for hundreds of 1000s of years or 10s of 1000s of years. Our ancestors would look at maybe a fire before going to sleep so it was this warm light, not blue not so the Calvin I don't know the exact Kelvin but it would be like a campfire. So like the light that's on me right now. It's more of a warm light. It's not like daylight I've got more of a warm ish kind of light. Blue light is more going to be just waking you up. And that's what we get off of our computer screens. That's why we encourage people don't look at the computer screen or wear blue glasses that block that blue light. So that's a little bit about lighting and we can go into it further or something just let us know if that if that satisfied you or if you want to know more. We can figure out where to direct you to to understand that so that's why I choose red. You know I wear a red headlamp or I have one available for me when I'm writing in my journal when it's nighttime is because the red doesn't activate my brain, you know, then it's hard to get back to sleep so red works. So there is more studies coming out about how good red light is. And I think the sleep doctor would have more of that details. I just know General like hey, they're starting to discover that read before going to bed and even while you're sleeping I've even heard so a lot more research than than what I know. So hopefully that helps a little bit and let us know if we need to direct you in more more directions.

All right, so Kim wrote in the chat, she said thank you, buddy. I'll try to find the more in depth research there nightclub. And can I also put the sleep doctor link in the chat for you as well. Next we have Louisa I will ask you to unmute

that I work

are you there Luisa if it's not working Can you let me know and put it in the chat so so we'll wait until Louisa gets back and next we have Joanne so I'm going to try to ask you a mute and hopefully it works

it worked. Yeah. Go ahead. Joanne. Can

you see me?

Yeah, Louisa. We'll just we'll wait just one moment. Just that's fine. Okay, go ahead.

Hi, um, I've been interested in this for a long time. I'm older I'm 77. And when I was in my 30s or 40s I read some books about it. And I quickly and possibly too quickly had a lucid dreams and didn't have enough context. And it actually frightened me. Because I'm not sure why. I think it's because without knowing it that I see sleep as an escape. So it's like part of me wants to know that I can still escape into regular sleep if this makes any sense. I also had a dream many years ago, that one where you think you're waking have woken up and you haven't. And that was terrifying. So I guess I, I need to I want to try this again. But I don't I'm not interested in being terrified. I've had panic attacks and I'm very familiar with all that stuff. I don't need that. So I'm wondering if anybody has I mean, it's been 35 years and I want to reinitiate it but I also am not interested in being lucid like oh lucid like, you know if that makes sense. So any any thoughts about that would be interesting to me.

Yeah, that absolutely makes sense. Katie, do you want to share? How do you feel? Okay. Yeah, sure.

Um, thank you for sharing that. I've had similar experiences Korean actually when I was when I was younger. About 15 or 20 years ago, I had a series of false awakenings and it totally scared me like because I felt like I couldn't get out of the dream. And I took a pause from lucid dreaming just like you're speaking to and what I what I realized I needed was I needed more resources. I needed to, I needed to connect with more people who had explored that world and to see, you know, what the different kind of what the map was in a way and what the experiences I might have at certain levels and how to not you know how to get out of those experiences if they weren't careful. So like, for example, with false awakening is that you're speaking to when we're having a false awakening. A lot of times what can keep us in there is if we panic in the moment, whereas if we relax into it, we relax into the dream and just recognize, oh, I'm in a dream, and we move through the dream with that more calmness, then we can more easily come out of that experience. If we want to. So, so more resources, more understanding of the different states. And then also, there's there's a concept of pushing into your pushing out of your comfort zone into like a little bit of a risk zone, but not going so far. That you're really pushing yourself to a place that's uncomfortable. And one of the ways that you can work with this is through intentionality. So you can invite specifically what kinds of experiences you want. Don't invite what kinds of experiences you don't want to have. Definitely want to just focus on what you do want. And then you'll see how your experiences come together, even things in your life will happen that will support you in having those experiences specifically, rather than having the ones that are scary. For you. Yeah, so those are a few ideas. And I also wonder Chelsea, if you have anything to add, because I know that you've you have a lot of experience with this as well.

I think that was beautiful, everything that you shared and I also had a recognition while you were bringing this up Joanne and Katie, were talking about it, which is I've done psychedelics before in my 20s I played with that a bit and when I've been with a kind of plant medicine and in the experience of it right there's there's a hint of almost feeling like a false awakening and recognizing because there can be a moment of oh, no, I'm not gonna get out of this. Right. And you really do like Katie said have to relax into it. And remember that everything is impermanent. Mm hmm. Yeah. So thank you, Joanne, for bringing that up. I appreciate it. Yeah,

it's great. Thanks so much. It's very useful.

Okay, so next we have Louisa,

can you see and hear me now? I

can we can see and we can hear you it's so

this is my first time I've I've read a lot of Andrews books and I'm doing book courses with him. i In yoga stuff that throat chakra was blue. So it's hard for me to think of it as red. And I don't like red. So I'm wondering if magenta or some color that I do like is

Yeah, I think that if you're on the if you're on the Dream Yoga path, and you've only been using blue, continue to use blue, okay, no need to change it. Okay. All

right. And what books are good on from the Tibetans perspective on lucid dreaming.

There's tons of unknown rubbish. Shay's book, which Katie is going to put in the chat.

Okay, I know. Okay.

There's also books by but Tibetan perspective Katie and Bodhi, Luke just lucid dreaming not necessarily Dream Yoga. Do you guys have any ideas? Barry might have a few

because red is supposed to be relaxing. I think of it as very activating. Yeah,

I can understand why you feel that yeah blue. Can feel much more cooling and relax. Yeah. Katie, I saw you unmuted.

Oh, yeah, I'm just putting a few of the books in the chat. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's quite a few. There's like the practice of notch Dream Yoga. Practice natural light by Nan chi Norbu Rinpoche that I think that to me, that one feels a little bit more advanced, a little bit more esoteric. I think the ones that I have found most accessible are the Tibetan Yogi's of dreaming saved by Tenzin Wangyal and then Dream Yoga by Angela check. Okay, but there's a lot. There's a lot going on. If you Google it,

there's Okay. All right. Going through all of our through all of Andrews books so I'll just read that one too. Thank you very much.

And Barry just Sarah shared lucid surrender by Melinda Powell. Oh, nice.

Yeah, and if others have recommendations, please put them in the chat as well books that you would recommend on my bed and dreaming.

Alright, so I'm going to now unmute Stephanie.

Hi Hi. Hi. So I wanted to ask the three of you, your take on this. I'm I'm fairly remedial in the sleep hygiene department unfortunately, but I'm working on it. But one of the things that I do and I have done for decades really are kind of on and off but more on than off. Having a dream a dream journal by my bed by the side of my bed and I do write in it. And I am not having a whole lot of lucid dreams or anything these days and I had one since you're the screw group started, which I was happy to have. But what I do so I do write dreams down when I wake up in the middle of the night. I don't always write them down if I'm just too you know, it's a boring dream or I'm too lazy or sleepy, but I write enough down. But this is the question is I don't always read them the next morning. I don't always read them right away. A lot of times I'll write them down. And sometimes I'm just you know, the way the date what the day requires me I just I don't make time to read them sometimes. I do if it's a dream that moved me in a way that I'm especially curious about or yeah, if it felt more important, I'll read it. But if somebody's don't read them, I can read them sometimes I eventually read them because I'll eventually go through and look at you know, read things from my dream. Yoga, dream journal Dream Yoga, whatever. Sometimes it's it's not always Dream Yoga, but I do eventually read them and I usually remember when I read them. Oh yeah, I remember that thing. But do you do you always read your dreams like right away the next day? Do you ever not read them is the most important component to write them down because they're it's sort of a remembering practice. But if I don't read them right away, is that like I'm only doing half of it? I don't know. I was just curious on your take on this. I've been kind of doing it a long time but I become less Yeah. Less less disciplined about reading and less time it all that. So yeah,

thank you for sharing your experience. Stephanie Bodiam wondering do you want to share about this? sure.

This is more is better. So you're doing great by writing down your dreams and that, that, you know, you score? You know, like, like 30 points for writing. So would you like to score another 30 points for a total of 60 then yes, read that dream during the day. But you don't have to. You're doing great by just writing down those dreams having a dream journal that's creating that sacred space. It's reminding you Yes, this is important. And when you do read your dreams, whether it's the next morning or the next week, and sometimes it's at the end of the month, you know, sometimes I do and I'll read at the end of the month just kind of like what what's been happening, what's going on? And yes, then that just adds to this is really important, and that's what makes us have more lucid dreams is how important so yes, that's an additional thing you can do every day or every week. Or every month that will help you have more lucid dreams. So encourage every everyone Yes, you read your dream whenever you have a chance during the day. I know our days are sometimes really filled and we can't get to it. You know, every day so not too tight not to lose is to remind us, you know, you don't have to be rigid and have to do it every day. Read your dreams. But yeah, the more you can bring it in the more is better. So there you go.

Fair enough. Fair enough.

Thanks. Okay. Thank you, buddy. I think we had Thank you, Stephanie. I think we have a couple in the chat. So maybe I'll read those and then we'll hear from you. Andre. Andrea. Okay, so let's see. Here. Sorry. It's hard to find these things in here. All right. So I think the next one was is Andrews lucid. Dreaming workbook. The standard manual people use here. Yeah, that's the one that we've been recommending. And once I'm done reading these, I will actually put a link in the chat or maybe Katie can do that. Since Alyssa is no longer here today. And then does anyone use dream supporting plants as well. There are definitely plants that we can use to support our dreams. One that I've been playing with a little bit is a blue lotus flower. That's a really fun one to play with. I've noticed for me that it can make me feel a little sedated. So I'm playing with how long to steep the tea. It's really fun because it actually turns the water blue. So Louisa, you might like that. Yeah. And then there is also I am absolutely Brett blanking by Katie and Bodie the plant that clip grows wild here in Santa Barbara it's all the all over the place use for lucid dreams Mel it's not Marlon. It's what is it? Well there's mugwort mugwort. There we go. Yeah, so you can also use mugwort to and even having plants like that like maybe having mugwort around you don't necessarily have to drink it or ingest it in any way. You can also just have it next to your bed or on your altar. And there's also lucid dreaming tea teas that you can get online and so definitely play with your plant allies and see what works for you. The next one in here is I think, talk a little bit more about false awakenings and how to continue in the dream. So I'd be happy to share on that or do you guys Yeah. Okay, so I love false awakenings. Right, you know, I love fossils. And they're my biggest edge. So a false awakening as Katie you know, I really talked about a little bit is when you're in the dream, and then maybe you wake up and this has happened to me frequently where I'll be in my bed and everything will look as it is right now. But something is slightly off. And sometimes we can check to see if we're dreaming by turning on a light switch. And if the light switch doesn't turn on, I've used to that before, then it can be a clue that we're dreaming. And so there's also a different feeling about false awakenings than there is in a lucid dream and there's been a consistent consensus around this from people that I've talked to I don't know really how to describe it as a different feeling. But it's it's almost like of like weight and like weighted down a little bit more than a lucid dream. But you're still you can be lucid and a false awakening as well. And so say you're in a false awakening and the false awakening is actually the thing that created the lucidity right yeah, that's what you're talking about Marianne, okay. So when you say stay lucid. I think that we would just use the same kind of techniques that we've talked about. So you know, you can twirl your arms you know, either forward or backward, you can stomp your feet that might actually be a good one. Because it's a little bit more movement in your body. You can look at your hands, right that sometimes will help you can actually go this might be fun, go up to something that you know in your house has words on it. You know like a calendar or a photo and you can try to read it because you know, you'll know where that thing is in your house. So that might help you stay lucid as well. And if you can't read it, then it might reinforce your lucidity. Okay, I hope that things were helpful. And then, let's see. Sorry, I totally kept on going through the chat. Andrea, I'm going to unmute you right now.

Or you know, actually I love these Dysport, these Zoom meeting. It's amazing is the first time that I'm here and I'm really impressed and I apologize because it's usually I got confused with the timing and I got here half an hour later, but anyway, here I am. And that's it. I have I don't want to take too much time. But I had just one question to each of you who feels like answering before body talking about when he was talking about lights instead of the importance of the lights and the color and the the key whatever I mean did the color of the lights. And I have to I've been lucid to me for a while. I mean I did a couple of courses with Andrew then I read and then then basically I mean, as you know, you are the best teacher for your own dream. So I'm trying to you know, invent something and try to do it as much as I can but sometimes a successful summit or not now focusing on flying and I like it but I mean it's okay anyway, so I don't want to my question is I am very much a movie buff. Okay, so basically I've been using a lot of TV before I go to sleep because I love it because it makes me feel good. And then I'm also nerdy so I look strange for strange movies anyway. And lots of my time. I spent a lot of my time so I was wondering is that I know that probably this is going to impact my own sleep time I on lucid dreaming, right? And but the fact that I still manage I'm very proud of that because I can put two things together. But talking about lights and UV both you hinted about lenses do you think that I can actually no It sounds a bit crazy use some some some filters of my glasses when when I watch TV before I go to sleep so that actually I sort of get out of the of the of the wrong wavelength Bucha wavelength on the TV and and get on the other is something that exists can be done. What's your take on me any of you who can

I add to a movie buff. I can't help it. I love I love you know the entertainment of movies. And so I share that with you. And I do know that it for me it it does affect my lucidity that and my my sleep so I do try and move the both Katie and I have if I if I can tuck her into watching a movie with me which is great. You know I have to agree that we watch it. We watch it earlier you know not just before bed so so I you know of course have to agree because I want to watch that movie. And so So yeah, sometimes if you can move it further away from when you go to sleep that does help. And then as far as glasses go, I mean definitely we're getting a lot of blue light from from, you know our mommy. Yes.

TV.

And usually we're further away from our TV. So but I would say experiment with that if you do have some glasses like the ones I'm wearing that block the blue or get some and then see if it helps with you know if it maybe in some way you can document or figure out oh yeah, when I do wear these, it does help. So there are these glasses that block the blue light and that's the light that you do want to block and not sure how much would be coming from a TV monitor that you know maybe you're 10 feet away or something or maybe maybe not so much but it could help lighting in the room. I mean if all the lights are off in the room and all you're doing is watching a TV screen that that can probably disrupt your sleep a little bit. You know, but I would say play with that. Probably the biggest thing you could do that would be interesting would be moving your movie time just up a little bit. So it's not so close to bedtime if you can, that would be most helpful and then and then Katie has really helped me with we do not watch movies every night and I'm like okay you know I look at

myself

once a month but for me I still enjoy it when there is you know movie night and but it's for me I am with Katie's help learning just shrink that down to because yeah, the lucid dreaming is really important for us, so. So bringing that in for me has been really helpful. So hopefully that helps.

Thank you very much. It does. It does. Thank you so much. Yeah.

Remember Katie when you're about to watch that late night movie.

Actually, I've got this I've got a Katy here I'm married to one so my wife is named Katie so can help me get better and actually she's very motivated because she hates it so I mean, it's bad but I'm a bit afraid because I'm afraid she she would overdo it and so I wouldn't have to choose either my movie Bob Pasha or my wife. Anyway, thank you very much. It's been very helpful.

Thank you, Katie. Do you have something to share? Yeah,

I just had one thing to add, which is that you know when you're watching the movie definitely enjoy it. Enjoy the movie, but try not to get lost in it or not to. Yeah, like really get into the story to where you're totally immersed in it. I know. It can be really fun to do that. But from a lucidity perspective, remain somewhat neutral. As you're as you're enjoying it and witnessing. Then it interrupts lucidity and games less.

Yeah, actually, in that from that point of view, I started watching more horror movie that actually terrorize me. But you see that I am aware that that forced me myself to be aware that's a movie. And so it really is really helpful because this kind of thing that you know, it's sort of like yeah, like in a dream that is scary. And then you say I am dreaming let's say hey, that's a movie. So I mean, the guy that is going to eat the other guy or strangle doesn't really exist. So I think you've got a point. Yeah, it's been very interesting. Thank you.

That's great. Thank you so much for the question. There was someone else in the chat saying they had a similar question. So I'm glad you asked. Yeah.

And sometimes I'll actually do a lucid dreaming practice of going to a movie theater. Like when a movie comes out that I really want to watch like dune recently came out and I couldn't help myself. And so I went to the movie theater and I sat there and when I noticed I was getting really involved in the scene, like when a sandworm would come up. Or something, or they would be fighting or there would be a ritual or something I would recommend I would make my aperture a little bit bigger and see the frame of the screen, right? And by doing that, I could see oh, I'm not in doing right now. I'm not in a desert. I'm in a movie theater and I can I can make a conscious effort to separate myself from what is being projected, which it's a great practice. So all right, so we have one more did Katie's Okay, let me just read the whole thing. From Jillian the red Pearl practice was lovely. Thank you Katie. I find the white pearl white odd to be too bright so it makes it hard to sleep. I'm wondering where the red Pearl practices from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche question mark. And then they also asked did Katie say to go into the curl? Let consciousness become it?

Yeah, so great questions. I learned this practice from Andrew Andrew Hall check and I haven't I have not actually experienced Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche teaching this practice, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't I just haven't. I haven't experienced that with him. He typically does. He sticks to the the lotus and the throat with the white ah, which is what you're speaking about here. That's his classic way of teaching it. And did I say to go into the pearl let the consciousness become it? Yes. So if you can, and again, this is an advanced level of the practice, but if you can, as you're going to sleep, you have your awareness with the pearl gently resting on it. And then it's like you just let yourself melt into the pearl or you could think of it as letting go into it. Let go into the pearl so that as you're falling asleep, your awareness remains with the pearl and with the throat.

And there's one more question for you, Katie about the practice in the chat. From proper.

Okay, great. Is the red.to represent the bindi red.in Hinduism placed on the third eye? That's it. That's a good question. So not in this practice as I'm teaching it, this this practice is I learned it from Andrew. So I actually don't I don't know that he is I have heard him speak about specifically where he learned it. But I know that he's trained in the Nigma and Kagyu lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. So I assume it's from one of those lineages but I'd have to double check with them to see about that. But the colors white, red and blue. I know that Tenzin Wangyal also uses and like, for example, in the three doors practice, so I think those colors are linked to the Tibetan dream practices specifically, and not Hinduism. Not to say that there might not be a similarity in Hinduism, but that's not how I was teaching it.

All right, everybody. That's everything. Thank you so much for joining us today. We look forward to being with you all next month. And before we go, we have a couple of things to conclude. So we're gonna have Katie and then Billy.

Thank you, everyone. So I just want to give a blessing. May you all have deep restful quality sleep? May your dreams and waking life be lucid? May you remember your dreams? And may you reach your intentions in lucidity?

Thank you, Katie. Yes. And in closing, we'd like to dedicate the merit of this group gathering to the benefit of all sentient beings. May be so thank you, everyone. And we look forward to seeing you next month.

You happy lucid dreaming?

She was up there. Recording

Absolutely.