Awareness, that behind closed eyes there are pictures. That swirling in the darkness of shut lids there are things to be seen. Looking, not with eyes, but with something else. Looking somewhere else. Somewhere not seen, but experienced. Within or without? The eternal question…

from Dream Voyager by Luna Selena

What does it mean to dream wide awake? How can we be awake and asleep at the same time?

Basically it’s about awareness. It’s knowing that you are dreaming, and knowing that entering the Dream World is a meaningful experience.

So called ‘lucid dreams’ are where you know you are dreaming while in the midst of a dream. An ‘out-of-body experience’ is pretty much the same thing, except the experience begins with the feeling you are slipping from your body. Both are incredible experiences, and at their best give you a real sense of oneness with the dream, a sense of power and freedom that we rarely experience in waking life, with all its binds and responsibilities. All the different terms to describe this kind of wakeful awareness while you sleep, although fascinating and very useful in their place, can be confusing, as they bring with them a whole loaded history and ultimately reflect the goals, experiences, fields of expertise and demographic of the researchers. It doesn’t mean we should abandon these terms or what has been learnt – it can be immensely useful – but I prefer to discover my own experiences, to create my own language and discover my own Dream World in a way that reflects who I am.

That is what Dream Voyagers do.

And what if you are someone who struggles to ‘wake up’ in the dream? What if these type of experiences do not occur spontaneously and practicing various techniques to induce them reap little rewards? Are you somehow less of a dreamer? Should the journey be abandoned?

Absolutely not!!!

The real heart of the ‘dreaming wide awake’ experience is the sense of freedom, the feeling of energy flowing through you, the feeling of ecstasy, the beauty of creating and exploring the Dream World.

You can have a tiny taste of this right now.

Dream Energy Exercise

Close your eyes, and take a deep breath. Listen to your breathing, and feel your heartbeat. Feel all the divine energy of the universe swirling about you. You may wish to visualise it as a colour, or many colours, as a white or silver light, as a beautiful aroma, or a cool, fresh breeze, or perhaps a combination of these things. Whatever feels beautiful and right to you is the answer.

This energy is everywhere, but it is as its strongest where there is love, peace, freedom, kindness, truth and selflessness. Follow the energy as it swirls about you. Feel it inside you, inhabiting every part of your being. Let the energy lead you into a place of imagination.

You are no longer in the waking world, you are in a beautiful place, and what this place looks and feels like is entirely up to you. It could be rooted in nature: a forest, sunny meadows, golden sands and a sapphire sea. It could be a bustling metropolis, with tall glass towers reaching to a blue sky and grey walls covered in street art.

Beauty is the Dream World is not like beauty in the waking world. A paving slab with weeds bursting through can be the most exquisite sight. A barren, rocky mountain with rusting metal structures has a loveliness only seen in the world of dreams. Try to experience some of this uncanny beauty in things we think of as ugly in the waking world.

When you have explored and created sufficiently, open your eyes, secure in the awareness that the divine energy of life can take you back to this place – and a million others – whenever or wherever you choose, waking or sleeping. It’s entirely up to you whether you decide to visit the same places again and again, explore entirely new ones, or enjoy a combination of the two.

By practicing this exercise, you have opened yourself up to the Dream World, and participated in it’s creation and experience. Use the divine energy to lead you into the Dream World whenever you want: going to sleep at night, when you wake in the middle of the night, during the day or whenever you have a quiet moment to spare, etc…

And every time you wake up in the morning, or in the night, remind yourself that you have dreamed, whether or not you remember it. Try and hold on to the sensation of what this feels like. If you remember content, or images, that’s great, but if you remember nothing but a lingering sense of experience, of time spent elsewhere while your eyes were closed, you are still a Dream Voyager.

Happy Dreaming!

Luna Selena X