I help folks play with their dreams (the sleeping kind) for self-knowledge, healing and spiritual growth. With a background in consciousness studies and archaeology, my expertise is in dreams at the intersections of culture, cosmos and ecology. Let's court the mysteries together!
Can we Decolonize Lucid Dreaming?
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Hi Reader, Hope you're having a dreamy week! Lucid dreaming is a shamanic skill, a method of heightened awareness in the dream that allows healers and voyagers access to information, insight and energetic powers. But this is a far cry from how we as Westerners are taught about lucid dreaming. More often than not, lucid dreaming is discussed as a fantasy realm where we can indulge our private fantasies, seeking entertainment and pleasure. Not that there’s anything wrong with this perspective, limited as it is. It’s simply a marketer’s dream seeking the lowest common denominator, neatly paralleling the adolescent cravings that drive the main engines of distraction and consumption in Western culture. You don’t have to be indigenous to appreciate the shamanic aspects of lucid dreaming, but as Westerners we need to let go of some destructive myths in order to participate at the deeper levels of imagination like those cultivated in traditional dreaming cultures. However, donning the cultures of others has its limitations, as well as hidden power dynamics that derive from those same colonial attitudes that reflect our disenfranchisement from spirit in the first place. In his book Dreamseekers, Harvey Arden writes about the way indigenous cultures feel drained by Westerner’s appropriation of their healing ways. One young aboriginal man fumes, “Get your own Dreamtime. Don’t take ours.” So as we go about decolonizing lucid dreaming, it must be with an antiracist lens on one hand, and a commitment to our own ancestral work on the other.
When I began exploring the ancestral connection to lucid dreaming (20 years ago!), it was a box of Lucky Charms that presented itself first. Further dreams helped me move beyond stereotypes of my Irish heritage into deeper connections with my deep ancestry. This process takes time, and it's worth it. To read more about this idea of lucid dreaming as a shamanic technology, check out my full article here And save the date! I'll be teaching the shamanic lucid dreaming paradigm as part of my upcoming training: Lucid Ignition: the Shamanic Edition Watch: New Lucid Dreaming DocumentaryCheck out this new documentary by dream therapist Melissa Johnson. Featuring many of my colleagues at the International Association for the Study of Dreams, this film goes deep into the possibilities of lucid dreaming from a psychologically mature perspective. Recommended! Listen: Wake TF Up PodcastI was recently featured on Toni Porrello's podcast Wake TF Up. We discussed the relationship between archaeology and dream research, my experiences with sleep paralysis, and powerful techniques for lucid dreaming. The episode also covers the concept of using dream work as a form of resistance and empowerment in the context of social justice. Listen on Audible, Apple or Spotify Dream strong! Ryan Hurd |
Dream Studies Newsletter
I help folks play with their dreams (the sleeping kind) for self-knowledge, healing and spiritual growth. With a background in consciousness studies and archaeology, my expertise is in dreams at the intersections of culture, cosmos and ecology. Let's court the mysteries together!
This morning, I woke up from a dream and then closed my eyes. I felt the energetic rumbles take hold and "I" slipped through the mattress into a cool dark space. I was immersed in unseen water, and I felt the waters healing me. Relaxing into it, I then felt like I was drawn by a current of water, like drifting down a river. I woke up to the sound of morning world (honking horns) and despite my annoyance of the wake up -- I felt absolutely refreshed. Ok, time to get to kids to school. This is...
Hi Reader, How's your dreamlife? I was a guest on Coast to Coast radio last week, talking about sleep paralysis night-mares and visionary hypnagogia. The phones really lit up. Even after an hour of taking callers, we barely dented the requests and George Noory had to apologize to listeners that we were out of time. I heard some incredible first-hand accounts. I was blown away with how many people have had this experience -- and how many are just at a complete loss of how to interpret what...
It's dang cold here in Philadelphia. And it's also St Brigit's Eve, the day before the first day of mid-winter, as celebrated by my Irish and Scottish ancestors as Imbolc. There's an old story in Ireland that this is the time when the winter goddess the Cailleach gives her power over to Brigit and her warming ways. As the winter goddess, the Cailleach is a powerful being. She often is depicted as an old woman who lives in a small hut in the forest. Sometimes she is depicted in terrifying...