Hi Reader,

I have been quietly working on a new project, and now's the time to see if you want to join me.

It's called the Archaeology of Consciousness, a new newsletter I have launched over on Substack. I am curating a new space there with a focus on how dreams and the imaginal intersect with cultural and material realities. Not so much in a neurosciency kind of way, but more of a mystical existentialismy kind of way.

The archaeology of consciousness is a theme I’ve been thinking about for decades. I've written lots of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the topic, detailing my travels from Nicaragua, to the high deserts of California, to the Paleolithic caves of Europe.

But this project is more personal: one of the most exciting aspects of this for me is how I'll be focusing on personal journals, deep ethnography and interviews.

I’m hoping to do some self-archaeology in the process, looking back at my field notes and journals from when I was a full-time archaeologist for a decade, and tying together those narratives to larger, collective threads. I’ll be telling stories here, not so much defending worldviews.

And to clarify: We will not be discussing Atlantis, the Younger Dryas, or whatever the lost civilization du jour is. I am not interested in that or what Netflix-sponsored archaeo-influencers have to say on the topic.

But what I am looking for is readers who are interested in the mysterious aspects of creativity, ecology, magical realism, liminality, sacred sites, altered states, and spirituality and the Real, however you experience it.

This is a little different than what I do here at Dream Studies, where I teach how to welcome back your dreams, honor your dreams and learn advanced dream skills like lucid dreaming too.

So I thought I'd ask your permission to add you to my substack list so you'll get notifications when I post there.

If you'd like me to add you to the Substack list, click here. ​

And please feel free to check out what I've written so far or just subscribe yourself. It's free. I just published an article today on the sudden passing of an influential figure in my life, Lance Foster, who was a Ioway cultural educator and indigenous archaeologist.

​Here's the link for my honoring of Lance and his indigenous view that the paranormal is really "an invisible ecology." It's a short read, but close to my heart.

Yours truly,

Ryan Hurd

Author of books and ebooks, creator of lucid bling, and community builder​