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 werewolf dreams, plus a new episode of my podcast on the future of dream tech, followed by deeper ways you can connect with me and my work.

Werewolf dreaming: The lucid practice of therianthropy

It’s spooky season here, so let’s talk about werewolves. In my own lucid dream life, I sometimes shape-shift into other animals. I’ve transformed into birds many times, and I also spontaneously transform into a wolf or werewolf in my lucid dreams. Saying this in public gives me some trepidation, because this ability is misunderstood and tabooed in the modern era (and now it’s guaranteed I can’t ever run for public office). The transformation into a werewolf or other animal in dreams and other altered states, also known as therianthropy, has been noted for centuries. And the fear of animal transformation—and specifically werewolves, is just as old.

While animal transformation is a cross-cultural phenomenon described in the world’s ethnography, the Western mythology about werewolves developed and concretized in the Middle Ages. Many of these myths are fear-mongering misperceptions about Celtic and Gaulish shamanism: skewed reports but with elements of truth.

Let us also not forget, that half-animal, half-human figures are also a class of imagery seen in the some of the world’s oldest cave art, the Paleolithic pictographs of Spain, Germany and Germany.

In my dreams, when I transform into a wolf, my consciousness shifts. I am powerful. I am fast and strong and I have an awareness that is focused and determined. I am a hunter. When lucid, it’s an emotional lucidity: a sense of embodied affect that my human body cannot take, but my animal body can ride with it. This lucid emotionality is particularly in shadow in western culture.

Animal transformation can be harrowing, because whenever we change our locus of self, we may feel out of control. But it can also be exhilarating.

New podcast episode is out: The Future of Dream Tech

In this brand new episode, I speak with Brian Gilan, a sleep tech professional and founder of Tech for Dreaming. The discussion reviews the current best sleep tracking devices and dream apps as well as the future of dream tech, including the nascent field of "dream engineering."
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​In this episode, we discuss:

• Brian's recent dark retreat experience and why he went without any tech hooked up
• Why lucid dreaming tech is kinda a cursed field and full of broken promises
• The best sleep trackers on the market, and the surprising feature that makes them successful
• The promise of AI and machine learning in the fields of sleep optimization and collective dream research
• What's next in dream tech (with some cautious optimism sprinkled in)

Flash Sale: 20% off The Elsewhere Dream Journal

For the next week, through October 22nd, you can get 20% off the world’s first connected dream journal system.

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.

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 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 at Dream Studies Press.

Looking for more support?

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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