Void Experiences and thoughts For Clare Johnson Jan-2014

“I am in a dream, fully lucid with the intention of finding another dream so I create a mirror and start to enter it. It gets to the point where my feet are on the floor in one place, my body halfway through the mirror and the top part of me in this blackness in a state of nothingness. I am slowly dissolving into the void”

I feel there are two places that dreamers call the void, the first is in the early stages of a wake induced lucid dream when you drop or phase to a light sleep state and retain awareness of this state change. At this point it gets eerily quiet as the sense of hearing is the first to shut down and you can be in a darkness that feels like an open space and will often precede hypnogogic imagery.

The second place is entered from within a lucid dream and I term this as the space between dreams. In the early days I would enter this space and quickly transit to a new dream, now I am able to spend time there and see it as a place of its own with potential for adventure.

It is this second state that I am trying to describe

My first impressions of this space were from trying to change to a different dream and when for a few moments I find myself in this darkness and often with the feeling of not wanting to remain in there due to a vague sense of unease. Very quickly I would find myself in anther dream having passed through within a few seconds.

Over time I started to wonder about this feeling and then started to associate the sensations with a place separate from normal dream space. In my thoughts this darkness or space between the dreams became a separate reality that I suspected I could explore if I had the skill.

The void always seemed to be present and was a recurring event in most lucid dreams.

Over a series of dreams I had lot of entries into the void and found that if I just accepted being there I would remain for longer periods. In time I also started to lose the uneasiness that seemed to accompany me at first.

The more time I spent in the void the more I seemed to lose any sense of self and it got to the point where I felt I existed as pure awareness.

In the void there is blackness that seems to be all around and has a presence, it is not seen with eyes but experienced with a set of inner senses that combine to create the awareness. This awareness is very hard to define in normal terms.

There is nothing to touch and I have nothing to touch with as there is no energy or dream body either. There is thought and full access to memory and the ability to leave to another dream if desired. I suspect what is happening is a shutdown of all sensory input and no recall of sensory data to construct a dream with. This is a shift to an inner sense and for me a new form of awareness that leaves me with a sense of wonder and more puzzles to try and solve.

I think that when I am in the void I am also a part of the void so exist for a few moments as pure thought. To be something with awareness and having shut off all contact with both the physical body dream and energy or dream body is a state of wonder for me.

I asked to meditate while in the void and had the following experience on transit to another dream.

“One dream goal is to meditate in the void so I ask for this from within the dream and then imagine close my dream eyes, start to relax my mind and lose all thoughts. I am now gently spiralling in a 360 degree rotation like I am moving into a long tunnel. This is a pleasant motion with some movement and I am enjoying it. I feel warm and safe, I am still moving forward and a bright white light is expanding in my mind and I think it is the sun in the distance. I fall into this light and it is warm and infuses me with a nice energy that I am enjoying. At this point I lose all sense of self and let the motion and feelings carry on till they finish and place me into another dream”

Another way to enter the void is through the mandalas of light that often appear for me in the dreams. Sometimes I will try to set up the situation for them to appear as in the dream below and other times they will appear on their own accord.

“I stop flying, hover and a scene forms around me, once more in a room and I now decide to just walk and see what the dream produces for me. I start walking and keep walking into a lot of corridors and just keep going round corners till I get to a dead end. I know I can go into the wall but stop, look up and ask for more than this basic dream. I do this with a very strong intent and won’t accept no for an answer and so a section on the wall starts to shimmer with multi coloured lights. The intensity grows and when it looks very strong and solid I move to the wall and stand in front of the patch of light. I submit to this energy. (this is a passive state and allows the light to take me, if I just enter then I end up in a dream of my making rather that a deeper experience that is beyond the normal state) At this point a female voice asks my name and I reply and say she cant refuse me entry.

At this point I feel my dream body or energy body being pulled to bits and dissolved to a mass of vibrating energy with no sense of me at all, in this bodiless state but with awareness I become part of the light and enter into a living tunnel and get taken on a very fast but short transit and end up after this in another room.“

I think the void is an area of mind that exists as a place of its own and can accessed if desired and therefore can also be explored. In this mind space normal symbols may not be valid so for now it may be an empty arena with the potential of adventure when I learn how to interact with whatever controls the state.

Supplements and Lucid Dreaming – Peter Maich 2014

I have been using supplements for the purpose of inducing lucid dreams for about 4 years and find if I follow a set process they are a great help for lucid dream induction and give a high rate of success.

Almost all of my lucid dreams on supplements are wake induced lucid dreams (WILD) and so a direct entry to a dream without losing waking awareness.

What works for me is a mixture of HTP5, Galantamine and Choline bitartate. This is a fixed combination and I will use this about once every two weeks with great results.

My standard way of using is to take 1x50mg cap of 5HTP at bedtime and then sleep for a few hours. When I wake from habit around 3 – 330am I will get up out of bed and do something to wake up fully. For me this is the most critical step in setting up for a lucid dream. After being up for about 20 minutes I will take a Galantamine & Choline mixture as follows,

• 
  2 caps of Galantamine/Choline mixture for a total of 8mg and 400mg of Choline
  
• 
  1 capsule of Choline bitartate (300mg)
  

All I do is listen to my body and let my mind wander where it wants to with no special focus. When the supplements start to take effect there is normally a slight tingling feeling in my spine between my shoulders, I then roll onto my side and relax into the next stage of the dream entry.

My first experience of taking this combination was like being hit by a truck. Not much prepares you for its effects.

I have been shunted OBE style into the ceiling of my room, fallen out of bed with a big thump of my dream body on the floor, not knowing what had happened and rushed away in a black tunnel in a mixture of terror and excitement all at once.

There are also hallucinations that are absolutely real when being experienced. I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and voices calling my name. These voices are often friends and it is very disturbing at first but in time they all become signposts that a lucid is near and so they are welcomed and observed with a quiet mind in an objective way.

The entries have now become pleasant and the signs of the dream arriving very obvious and welcome. Almost all dreams are entered by WILD and the transition from lying in bed to walking around in dream without losing any level of waking awareness is still an exciting and mysterious event.

I find that if I start to send my mind around my body when the supplements take effect I will enter the dream by way of an OBE.

I will feel my dream body gently separate from my sleeping body and my awareness will slip in as the separation completes. When the change is complete I like to walk across the room to the glass doors and gently push and soften the glass ready for me to escape into the night sky.

In contrast to an OBE if I start observing the imagery forming up in the darkness of closed eyes I will enter directly into a dream. Either of these entries is truly amazing and has not lost any impact over time.

For me the rewards of supplements are lucid dreams of long duration with max times of around 2 hours in a lucid state with 45 to 60 minutes being the norm. I will often wake myself to record a dream and then when I am ready go back into the same dream or create another.

I can also get lucid using a good strong cup of coffee if I get up in the early hours, wake up and then go back to bed. With coffee it is nearly always a direct dream entry not an OBE and this is due to the very strong and vivid hypnogogic imagery I experience on coffee that keeps me focused inwardly.

Below are 4 dream entries made up of the following entry methods,

1. 
   WBTB with G&C mixture
   
2. 
   WBTB with G&C mixture
   
3. 
   WBTB with coffee
   
4. 
   No supplements and early evening lucid with late morning lucid the next day.
   

“About one hour till the tingles in my spine and then 3 easy OBE with success on the 3^rd one. Each time I tried to get out I was being held back by another hand, I could feel it and see it as a shadow wrapped around me upper back and chest. When I did get out I had this energy body attached to me and I took it across the room and along for the ride with me. I felt that it was from inside me so a second energy body or being was lurking around somewhere. I was now hovering in the air above the yard and looked at me looking at me. Laughing I said we are both the same person and it was funny just looking at an amused but happy me. The second body was excited to be there and had a familiar face and the correct imprint to be me but appeared to be a lot younger. “

Still lying in bed thinking about this and curious as the sup mix is nearly 100% effective for me and allows for lots of re-entries into dreams. I am sure I was awake as my cat came in and made some noise and jumped onto the bed with me. I just thought "stuff this" I want to dream and willed myself to the doors again and was surprised that I did just that, there was no feeling of exit of any sign that I was asleep and I am very sure that I was not asleep. I am now at the glass doors and they are resisting me but I do not accept this and gently push and rub my hands on the glass, I can feel the energy that makes the doors pushing back and again feel this all around me but this time I have no intention of being rejected by the dream so I keep at the process and get what I call a quiet rage rising up in me that Is a sign that tells me it is not possible to fail at my task.

I now float out into the greyness and it lightens up to normal clarity”

Coffee Back to Bed

DC getting me lucid

0515am CBTB Drifting into a nice warm energy and in a dream lucid from the start

“Lucid and in a building that looks like a research hospital with security areas. I walk past a man in uniform and smile at him as I go past to a locked door and just walk through it. He raises the alarm and opens the door, says out loud “Intruder in the building. We need to find him” when asked which intruder he points at me and says “That one, that intruder” Realising how silly that all sounds he start laughing and so do I. We are both now on the floor rolling around laughing like idiots. “

No supplements, WILD early evening

“I had an early evening lucid and they are rare for me. It was after a long day driving and I was exhausted so when I went to bed I was in an exhausted state but my mind was active but not to the extent of out of control. I had read for a while, just picked up 3 of the Seth books in one of those days when the books found me and had read about the life in cells and the memory they hold. With this thought I roamed around my body with my mind and found a warm spot so let that expand out and then though about the cells creating the warmth and the life in them. From here I was just in a dream and fully lucid. If only it could always be that easy. This lasted for a little while, woke up and then slept for a few hours.

Next morning – lucid

Morning and daylight

Now awake in a fully lit room and in a very quiet hut on a farm I had rented for a few days. I relaxed with closed eyes and soon drifted into a lucid dream and again it was so easy I was amazed.

This was a very aware fully lucid state.

Now lucid and the dream lasted around 30 minutes in total and was real, unbroken and very vivid in all aspects.”

Lucid dreams with the assistance of supplements could be compared to the difference between snorkelling and holding your breath underwater or using a tank of air when diving. They extend the duration and ease of dream entry but require skill to make the most of the experience.

They are not a magic pill and need to be backed up with skills in the dream space for maximum effect.