Hi Reader,

Welcome to the Dream Studies Newsletter and Happy Halloween!

I'm so glad you opened this email. Some of my readers have been following me for decades, and others are brand new to my approach to dreamwork. I appreciate you!

Halloween is the marking of an important crossroads, into winter, into darker nights, and--in the old days of my Celtic ancestors--the shift to days of eating a lot of boiled turnips and oatmeal.

In Celtic mythology, this dayworld shift is mirrored by another cross-roads, a time when the waking world and the Otherworld, the realm of the dead, intersect.

Halloween was also known as Puca Night. An Irish folklorist from the 1870s suggested, “the dark and sullen Phooka is then particularly mischievous and many mortals are abducted to fairy land.” This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the successful voyager between realms was often given a gift, such as music, greater intelligence, or a new sense of life direction.

Dreams played deeply into this time of year in traditional Celtic cultures, because it is often in dreams that the crack between worlds reveals itself. Ancestors, both benevolent and snarky, show up, and for those who are not afraid to listen, knowledge is loosened from unexpected sources.

The veil is thin! What will you dream tonight?

New podcast episode is out: Psychedelics, Lucid Dreaming, AI and the Nature of Consciousness

In this brand new episode, I speak with science journalist and consciousness explorer David Jay Brown in a wide-ranging Halloween-themed conversation.
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​In this episode we talk about:

• Childhood portals — we explore how children may be open to experiences that consensus reality later closes off.
• Lucid dreaming as healing medicine — Can lucid dreaming help recover repressed memories? We stress the importance of community, therapy, and stability before attempting deep inner work.
• Spooky story time — the sobering case of my correspondence with mass murderer (and lucid dreamer!) Jared Loughner
• DMT entities and the question of consciousness — We circle around the ongoing philosophical question of whether entities in psychedelics, lucid dreams, and meditation are real, internal, or both.
• AI as creative partner: from gnosis to psychosis — David shares how he treats his AI assistant Luna Lumen as a friend and collaborator, co-creating graphic novels and conducting philosophical dialogues that pass the Turing test.

Launch Bonuses for Lucid Dreaming: Dawning of the Clear Light

As a publisher, it's been a great honor to bring Dr. Scott Sparrow's classic work from 1976 back to a new generation of dream readers. In this 50th anniversary collection, we paired his classic text with more recent essays, covering topics such as the nature of dream characters, the limits about dream control, and the secret to inviting luminous mystical light in dreams.

If you join the waiting list, you'll be the first to know when the book is available ...and you'll also have first dibs at claiming book launch bonuses.

Just click the waiting list button below and put your email in the "notify me" box. That gets you on the list!

Save the Date: Ancestral Dreamwork coming soon!

I'm excited to be teaming up with dreamworker Natasha Bolvin for this 5 week experiential workshop on ancestral dreamwork.

The work will take us into the cycle of harvest festivals -- precisely the time the ancestors are stirring the most, and also not coincidentally the time we need the most support in dealing with family drama that kicks up in the process!

In short, it's a great time for inviting well ancestors to our imaginal space.

We will explore dreaming, landscape, and ancestral remembrance together over five live sessions and with a secure forum to share dreams and visions.

More info coming soon!

Looking for more support?

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It's a community, and it's also a roadmap. You can take the included on-demand courses to solve whatever problem you're working with right now: minimizing nightmares, getting more rest, encouraging more dream recall, and of course, inviting powerful lucid dreams and other kinds of extraordinary experience.

Right now you can join the Dream Portal for less than $16/month if you use this coupon in the cart and save 20% recurrently: NEWSLETTER20

And don't forget the coupon code when you register. And if you find out it's not for you, we have a two week refund policy, no questions asked.

May you sleep well and dream strong!

Ryan D. Hurd, founder of the Dream Portal and Dream Studies Press