I kept vampire hours tonight, mining old journals for material for new writing. I paused from time to time to look at ideas and exercises for creative writing that I have sketched out over the years, both for my personal use and as plans for one of my favorite workshops, "Writing as a State of Conscious Dreaming."
Just as I was thinking of continuing my dreaming in bed, I received an email message from my friend Ana Maria Stefanescu n Romania, who hosted a marvelous workshop for me in the Bucegi mountains last month. She reported that - while I was reading and making notes - she dreamed that I gave her a series of ideas and exercises for a creative writing workshop she is planning to lead in Romania in December. She commented that she woke up very excited, but still tired. Certain that she would be able to remember what she had learned, she allowed herself to drift back to sleep, then woke again to find that most of the content was gone.
She requested me to show up in her dreams again and repeat the instructions!
I recalled that on a previous occasion, someone who dreamed they received tuition from me was not only able to recall the whole session in exact detail, but to help me fill a page in a book I was writing. Back in the period when I was working on my book Dreaming True, I received a message from a woman in California who had attended one of my programs. She wanted to thank me for the lecture I had given overnight, in her dream, in which (she said) I had summarized part of my argument very cogently in five points that I wrote on a whiteboard.
Unknown to her, except for her dream, I had reached a stage in my book draft when I wanted to sum up part of my thesis in five points, but had only formulated the first to my satisfaction. I shot back a message to the California dreamer asking if she could retrieve her lecture notes and send them to me.
Right away, she sent me the five points Dream Robert had made in his lecture. They filled in, exactly, the missing bits in my book draft. And I put them in the book with almost no editing!
My response to my friend who lost the details of what Dream Robert was telling her about crafting a creative writing workshop? "Maybe you can go back inside your dream and get Dream Robert to give you those ideas and exercises again!"
Ana Maria said she will try this. It took her only an hour or so to came back to me that she now recalls that Dream Robert's first exercise was to encourage writers to go to the place from which their truest words come. This was further good telepathy, and dream tracking, since (unknown to Ana Maria) I have led an exercise along these lines. I wrote a poem of my own ("A Place to Write From") on this very theme, on where I find my truest and most passionate words:
Write from the place that is raw
from the night when you lost your skin.
The poem is in my collection, Here, Everything Is Dreaming that will be published in April 2013.
I couldn't help joking that this fine flow of telepathy may have been aided by the fact that my friend is in Romania, while I was keeping vampire hours!
I will be leading my five-day creative writing adventure, "Writing as a State of Conscious Dreaming" at magical Mosswood Hollow, near Duvall, Washington, from May 6-10, 1013.
5 comments:
It's good to know your poetry book is finally coming out! Congrats. I look forward to getting a copy.
Thanks, Justin. I am excited about this. The catalog writeup is here: http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5716-here-everything-is-dreaming.aspx#.UH1wwPLDTAg.facebook
I am a little skeptical about long-range dream telepathy. I think that when somebody plays a (important) role in your live you are bound to dream about that person from time to time. And in that dream there automatically will be components that play an important part in the life of the person you are dreaming about.
Coincidentally I’ve also had a dream in which Robert played a role. In the night of 23-24 November
Short version of the dream. I was part of a group of people who were given a tour by Robert
First outside, at the end of the tour in a building. In the building I started reading in a catalogue in which you could view photos but also entire movies. First I saw a picture of a machine (a press and oven in one) that lets you press yellow foam in a form. And then you could bake it in the oven part. Price € 899,- In the catalogue I saw more of this kind of strange articles.
Then I saw in the catalogue a movie about an area on the Eastern South coast in Australia. A woman warned that you could not go into the ocean in this region because you would be dragged down by strong currents and then disappear forever.
After her story I saw a giant huge prehistoric eel swimming in the ocean. The eel was suddenly stuck with its head in the entrance of a huge cage. In this cage hundreds of small eels were already caught. On top of the cage there were 2 people who tried to pry open the lid with sticks. They succeeded and the eel swam away.
It would be easy to say that this dream was a form of long-range dream telepathy.
- Robert was reading in his old journals looking for material for new writing and reading ideas and exercises for a workshop creative writing. I dreamt about Robert giving a tour, which you can compare with giving a workshop (a tour through new information exercises and ideas) Or a tour through the journals he was reading.
- I dreamt about reading in a catalogue with photos and movies, Robert was reading in his old journals probably with short notes and long notes
- I dreamt about the E-S coast of Australia, Robert lived in Australia.
This year I have started reading books by Robert and his blog. And I am practicing the exercises from his book. So it would be a matter of time before he automatically appeared in one off my dreams.
And the components such as a tour (workshop), catalogue (journals) and Australia are linked to Robert after reading his books.
Although I am curious if Robert read a story that night in one of his journals about: a press and oven in one and/or a giant prehistoric eel swimming in the ocean :-)
Hello James - I must tell you I receive 10-20 dream reports every day, on average, in which I play a significant role. My general response is to encourage the dreamer to look at Dream Robert as an aspect of himself/herself. Yet dreaming is social as well as individual, transpersonal as well as personal, so I am always open to the possibility of interaction.
I would not regard your dream as an experience of telepathy, but I must note (as you will know if you have been reading "Conscious Dreaming") that a dream of a bull eel was a most important experience in my life, and my visa into the world of a dreaming people of Australia (the Mununjalli tribe). Also, I was writing recently about the experience of a strong undertow in the surf along Australia's Gold Coast as one of those moments when you feel that natural forces are alive and animate. I posted a note on that on Facebook on Monday November 26.
In all things, we must surely be open to the data of experience. Thanks for contributing to the discussion and the data collecting.
Hello Robert,
Thank you for answering my post. You are right about the bull eel. Today I have looked in your book Conscious Dreaming and read the story again. I haven’t read your post on Facebook about a strong undertow along Australia's Gold Coast (I don’t use Facebook) but you’ve probably wrote about this earlier. On your blog or in your books.
I like the idea to look at Dream Robert as an aspect of myself. The part of myself that is interested in learning more about dreaming. And reliving, in the night, all the information about dreaming I have read in the past months.
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