Hi Reader,

Welcome to the Dream Studies Newsletter!

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! In this newsletter I share my latest blog on flying in lucid dreams, plus a new episode of my podcast on sleep paralysis entities, followed by deeper ways you can connect with me and my work.

How to fly in lucid dreams: and the initiation waiting for you there

According to the peer-reviewed research, flying in a lucid dream is the most popular thing folks want to do, even more than having dream sex. It’s certainly true for me. But learning to fly is not as simple as you would think. There’s a delicate balancing act that we need to learn. That’s what my most recent blog on Dream Studies is about: the hidden initiation that waits for us when we lift our dream bodies off the ground.

TLDR: We have to be both willful and able to surrender to the dream’s energies in turn, and that takes some practice.

For starters, flying in a dream requires willpower, or volitional consciousness, just to get off the ground. But sometimes that willful push can meet resistance. In fact, one of the outcomes of a study Scott Sparrow and did recently on his mystical dreams was that all kinds of conflicts emerge when Sparrow tried to observe mystical light in a focused and controlling way. Suddenly, characters coming out of the woodwork that were “getting in the way,” or being confrontational, or even kicking him out of the dream.

We can see this sequence of willpower and dream reaction really clearly in lucid flying dreams. I have l had dozens of lucid dreams where I try to fly and I get ensnared by briars or electrical lines, or people literally tugging at my feet to bring me back down to earth.

The secret out of this snare is counter-intuitive. And it's been documented by dreamers and mystics for hundreds of years.

New podcast episode is out: Sleep paralysis Encounters

In this episode, I sit down with researcher Dr. Sheila Pryce Brooks to explore the hidden world of sleep paralysis entities, from the historic Incubus and Succubus of ancient folklore to the Hat Man, the Smoke Entity, and encounters with non-human intelligence that include positive experiences of angels and ancestors too.

Drawing on her original PhD research, Brooks offers practical guidance on reclaiming personal power during these harrowing yet potentially transformative experiences.
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​In this episode, we discuss:

• What sleep paralysis actually feels like: the symptoms as well as the hidden opportunities
• The historical roots of sleep paralysis entities, tracing back nearly 5,000 years to Sumerian legends
• A tour of the entities people encounter, from the Hat Man and Smoke Entity to guardian spirits and benevolent guides
• How intention and inner empowerment shape whether an experience turns terrifying or transcendent
• Ancestral visitations and possible connections to non-human intelligence, UAPs, and alien abduction phenomena
• Why sleep paralysis, near-death experiences, and lucid dreaming may all be overlapping expressions of the same broader phenomenon

Womb of the Dream Walkers: A new piece about self-archaeology in the Paleolithic caves

My most recent essay on Archaeology of Consciousness is titled Womb of the dream walkers: Self-archaeology in the Paleolithic caves of Southern France.

Ten years have gone by since the first time I made the trip to the painted caves. I have found it absurdly difficult to write about. It’s just too…. big. In this article I explore a single moment that is actually the impetus for starting my Substack: It’s the moment I was spiritually x-rayed by a 17000 year old painting of a bison.

Next Course: Lucid Dreamwork starts September 3rd

Save the date… Join hundreds who have transformed their relationship to fear, ecstasy and spiritual growth with my Lucid Dreamwork methodology. Learn how to navigate your lucid dreams with alignment, purpose and in grounded safety. You’ll wake up to your waking life too as you unlock old energy patterns, igniting confidence, creativity and vitality.
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​Important: This online course is not about “how to have lucid dreams” – but how to work with them, and achieve better outcomes. I call this process lucid dreamwork. We will especially focus on the emotional language of dreams and learn how to balance this realm with your soulful intentions.
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Using the metaphor of alchemy, we will explore how we exert change in our environment, create space for emotional safety, invite autonomous creative expression, and ultimately, learn to dwell our own inner luminosity in times of darkness and uncertainty. In this way, this workshop addresses the sacred initiation that awaits you.

More info coming soon! I'll share more and open the cart next week. To get a taste of what we will be studying together, check out my most recent blog post.

The Elsewhere Dream Journal is here

In a collaboration with Elsewhere.to, my publishing house has created the world’s first connected dream journal system.

In a lot of ways, the project epitomizes the central mission of my work, which has always been about integrating the best of 21st century thought with the intuitive ways of knowing prized by our ancestors: dreams, visions and imagination: "the best of the old and new.”

What is a connected dream journal?

The connected dream journal system lessens the friction of reporting, archiving, and analyzing on your dreams like never before.

It solves a problem I have personally had for years – how to get all the cognitive and mindfulness benefits of dream journaling by hand, and also be able to easily digitize the dreams for thematic analysis after the fact. If you’re like me, you might dozens of old notebooks of dreams, and no way to track changes in your dreams over time. Or, you've got a massive word doc with hundreds of dreams, but have missed out on immediacy of recording them and sketching the powerful visual images.

Now you can do both!

With the Elsewhere Dream Journal, you can record your dreams old school style—pen and paper— then scan the page using the Elsewhere app on your smartphone or tablet. The app digitizes your handwriting (it’s remarkably good at this: I have to correct only a few words each time) and then you can watch your dreams come alive with analysis, image generation, and symbol mapping.

You can pick up the Elsewhere Dream Journal: A Place for Dreams, exclusively available at Dream Studies Press.

Looking for more support?

If you are looking for a safe place to share and understand your own extraordinary dreams for creativity, healing and spiritual discernment, this is exactly what we do in the Dream Portal, day in and day out.

The affordable Foundational Level tier supports you as you supercharge your dream life ... safely and sustainably. This community hub serves as a private social network where we geek out about all sorts of dreaming practices, including for working with lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, and out-of-body experiences.

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