Hi Reader

It’s been a week now since the waters have mostly receded from the twin hurricanes of Helene and Milton. A lot of my family live in Florida: they escaped with some water damage and a few hours of power outage. My peoples in the mountains of North Carolina, however, lost entire communities. “It’s like a bomb went off in our neighborhood,” one of my friends said to me yesterday.

So much death and destruction, and the fragility of the American infastructure was revealed, again.

There’s a sense of shock we collectively feel, but then the news cycle moves on, to the next disaster. The next atrocity. The next political gaffe.

We saw this in Paradise, California.

In Lahaina, Hawaii.

One town at a time destroyed by extreme climate events, and the attention span moves on while it takes years for folks to pick up the pieces, and rebuild, if they choose to rebuild. If they have the resources to rebuild. Meanwhile, our friends are left with the infuriating task of trying to figure out how to literally find shelter, water and electricity again, while still making their rent payments on time, while still paying this month’s insurance premium.

That’s how the climate apocalypse is going to go: not all at once, heralded by trumpets, but one community at a time.

So what is the point of dreaming in times like these? Are we just navel gazing and spiritually bypassing reality for comfort and nostalgia while the world burns?

And to this I say, no. That’s not how it works.

In times of hardship, humans turn to dreams and other intuitive ways of knowing. In novel times, we must turn to novel thought, not for comfort, but to find creative and healing breakthroughs which can be applied to waking life.

This is the power of dreaming in the age of apocalypse, or what I call doom dreaming.

To read the rest of my essay on apocalyptic dreams, click here to read it on the blog.

Public talk tomorrow about Divine Light in Lucid Dreams

I'll be speaking alongside Dr. Scott Sparrow tomorrow, October 19th, in a free talk hosted by the DreamStar Community. We'll be discussing our new peer-reviewed paper "The antecedents of light in dreams."

Here's where to learn more and register, hosted by the fabulous Dreamstar Community (again, free.)

Applications coming soon for the Dream Portal

I'm soon to open up for new members in my VIP dreamers community The Dream Portal. We are celebrating Year Two!

I've got some fantastic plans for the year ahead, and am already lining up new special guests and curating new dreaming programs for you.

This year, we will continue our group coaching into Dreaming Foundations, as well as moving deeper in the principles of lucid dream work and general dream interpretation too.

​Be sure to join the Dream Portal waiting list -- Waiting list folks will be among the first to be invited in after completing an application of intent, with some special prizes for early bird registrants to boot.

Here's what dream expert Kimberly Mascaro, PhD, author of Dream Medicine, has to say about the Dream Portal: (click the image or here)

Upcoming Podcast: Lucid nightmare spookiness!

Yes, I haven't forgotten it's still spooky season. Not to worry, I'll be interviewed next week on the podcast Integral Dream Circles to talk about lucid nightmares sleep paralysis and underworld.

When: Friday October 25th, 1PM Eastern.

Hosted by Fairytales from Ecotopia - a public newsletter on Substack.

Here's the Facebook event info - if you sign up, you'll get the zoom link. If you're not on Facebook but want to go, hit reply and I'll send you the link (sorry this newsletter is now too big to put in raw zoom links).

Last chance: The spiritual and creative dimensions of lucid dreaming

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My dear friend and mentor Dr. Fariba Bogzaran, will be leading a two day virtual seminar starting tomorrow October 19th.

Dr. Bogzaran will share a comprehensive view of lucid dreaming from scientific, creative, transpersonal, and experiential approaches. Participants will learn the practice of lucid dreaming through methods of dream incubation, creativity, and integral dream practices. This workshop is philosophical, experiential, and practical.

When: October 19-20th.

Cost: sliding scale including some scholarship seats

​Here's where to learn more. This event is hosted by the California Institute of Integral Studies.

May you sleep well and dream big this weekend!

Ryan Hurd, author of Lucid Talisman, Editor-in-chief of Dream Studies Press