Director/Designer, Jesse Jacobs, brings a cinematic and synethesias flavor to his lucid investigations. The LDE welcomes Jesse!
When did you first learn about lucid dreaming? What did you think when you heard about it?
First of all, I wanted to thank you for all the work you do in your books, lectures, and classes.
I first learned about lucid dreaming in high school when a friend showed me Stephen Laberge’s book. Also, I had vivid dreams from an early age. When I was very young many of my dreams were inspired by films and stories. I remember a lot of dreams with heroes and monsters from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I specifically remember one night when I was very little, my father woke me up to watch The Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine in the middle of the night. For years I had reoccurring dreams playing with the animated Beatles and all the creative creatures from the movie. At this age, these dreams felt as real as any experience in the waking world with many of the characteristics of lucidity. When my friend told me about her lucid dreams I was very interested and believed it was possible.
Did you have immediate success with lucid dreaming, or did it take a while? What happened in your early lucid dreams?
I remember being so excited to lucid dream but not knowing what in the world I was doing. I first tried the counting technique to try and enter a lucid dream from the waking state. It was pretty funny, I remember thinking this isn’t working at all. Sometime after I spontaneously had my first lucid dream when I wasn’t at all trying:
Flying as Sam Lowry
I was flying in a vast cityscape made of endless brick and stone skyscrapers. The buildings were bluish grey and the landscape was filled with rays of golden light. I soared high into the air and came diving down to the ground high speed. I was so low a sea of bricks whizzed underneath me. I realized, ‘I’m dreaming!’ I quickly discovered I was flying as the character Sam Lowry from Terry Gilliam’s movie Brazil. I felt a lucid euphoria amazed by the immense power of flight. As I flew faster and faster, everything was more real than anything I had experienced in my life! The energy increased until the whole dream was flooded with light and I woke up. (As I woke I realized I had fallen asleep in a moving car. If you are familiar with the film— my first lucid dream was about a man who lives to dream.)
Eventually, lucid dreams happened randomly and spontaneously over the years when I wasn’t at all trying to have them. Years later when I began doing dream work, writing my dreams down every night, I began to have more lucid dreams. At this point, dreaming became a practice.
What was it about lucid dreaming that fascinated you?
Many areas fascinate me. I have been interested in the potential of lucid dreaming in the areas of creativity, expanded awareness, psychology, healing, consciousness, and spirituality. For the most part, my interests developed in that order. When you first lucid dream there is an incredible excitement to use the creativity of the dream to have experiences beyond your wildest imagination. About the same time I learned about lucid dreaming, I began experiencing visual-kinesthetic synesthesia from doing improvisational awareness and movement exercises. This was a type of peak experience that profoundly changed the way I saw the world and I began asking bigger questions about awareness and perception. What is the nature of perception and the mind? What is the relationship between our inner and outer world? Can we expand our perception and raise our awareness to raise our consciousness? Years later when I began dreaming about energy I became interested in lucid dreaming as a way to understand the layers of self and the nature of mind. The following dream excerpt occurred in a sequence of dreams which explores some of these questions:
The Dream Theater
I found myself in a room. It was a dream room filled with red, green, and blue prismatic light. Somehow it was a room on another level of reality. Not here or there, in non-time... A light flashed and I found myself in a different part of the school. I was told the school housed many floors for artists, musicians, filmmakers, scientists, and healers. We walked the corridors to a vintage elevator which we took to the ground floor. Up top, I noticed a wire buzzing with electricity hooked up to a generator. There was an auric Qi type energy glowing off the wire. I could feel the glowing energy with subtle synesthesia. That’s strange, I thought and I realized— 'I’m dreaming’.
People were going into a movie theater right off the entrance way. Inside, the theatre was filled with crowds of students, so I decided to follow them. I met a woman friend and we sat down in the theatre together. One student had prepared a dream film that we are about to watch. The professor explained, “In this course, people will be trained to share their dreams directly to the movie screen. People have the ability to prepare their dreams to save them and then re-conjure them for people like a recording.” One student raised their hand and asked, “How is that possible?” The professor answered, “It is the streaming of consciousness, directly onto the movie screen. The mind screen. They re-enter their dream that they themselves have already dreamed and just play it again. Another student asked, “They stream it? How?” The teacher said, Yes, they replay it in their mind and when they do it— it will project onto the movie mind screen…” And he pointed, “…to this screen right here.”
A beautiful shy young woman with a short black hair bob like a 1920s flapper sat down on the main chair, in a black fringe dress, closed her eyes and started to dream. The stage lights were brought down into a single spotlight on her. As she closed her eyes images began forming on the screen. It was of a bird. I looked around in amazement. She was replaying a dream right on to the screen. It was of a beautiful bird soaring over a landscape. I looked all over the screen at the beautiful scenery, trees, mountains, and rivers.
The entire audience all began as a bird. We were the bird. I don’t just mean we saw the bird. We were inside the bird, as a bird. Yet we were also in our bodies simultaneously in a dual state of consciousness. The bird soared over these beautiful landscapes that were more real than real. And then the audience became a flock of birds all flying together with a single purpose.
And then the visual-kinesthetic synesthesia began. Everyone in the audience could both see and feel everything simultaneously. Like we were touching everything outside ourselves like it was all one. Unity. We flew over hills and rivers and through telepathic telecommunication towers. There was a sea of these towers transmitting energy frequencies of multilayered consciousness.
The reality began to transform into an abstract landscape of geometric forms, triangles, squares circles. The entire landscape transformed into this vibrant electric light. A beautiful abstract mathematical geometric world of the most amazing colors, deep oranges, reds, blues, yellows, and greens. A vast spectrum of lights and forms. We realized now we were directly inside her mind— dream flying as one. We were all in a single unified consciousness. We moved through a geometric landscape of neon forms, crystals, and the streaking beams of light through time. We entered a single spectrum prism of light and energy.
As you went along, did you have lucid dreams that surprised you? Or led to unexpected events? Tell us about those.
After I began writing down my dreams regularly I started having spontaneous lucid dreams of visual-kinesthetic synesthesia, telekinesis, energy, and light. This was a real shift. These lucid dreams would usually come about in one of two ways. Sometimes these would begin in conflict with antagonists or shadow figures where I would discover unknown powers of perception. Other times the dreams would spontaneously show me new levels of awareness beyond my waking ego. The following dream excerpt is an example in which a confrontation leads to expanded awareness:
The Lodger
In the dream, I am traveling visiting an old motel. (After several earlier scenes I realize I am being chased.) Wham! The door blasts open. The man appears. A streaking light casts deep shadows on his face. He wants to kill me! I have to decide if I am going to storm him and slam the door, but think, ‘He will just try to break in again, or return.’ I need to face him now. I reach within the core of my being and summon all my power and realize ‘I’m dreaming!’ Telekinetically I rise all the objects up in the room. First small inanimate objects-- books, glasses. Then the chairs, desk, couch, and finally all the furniture and everything off the floors and walls. I feel a unifying electromagnetic field. The room fills with light. The outside floods the windows with light. I lift the shadow man up in non-gravity. He hovers held within my energy field— his head and back arch, his arms outstretched, legs dangling. I can feel the entire room magnetically as if everything is a part of me. The energy increases until I feel the man metamorphose into long streaks of light. I fill with light. The room fills with light. A magnetic force field travels through my body. I dropped down deeper into myself. I discover my unknown power. I awake in bed vibrating in a magnetic field of energy and light.
The following dream excerpt is an example of how the dream moves my body with energy to expand my awareness:
Tai Chi Wheels of Light
I was walking through traffic when I spontaneously began doing all of these Tai Chi moves without my volition. My body moved as if the information was being transmitted into me from a beam of energy. My body ramped down as if from a slow-motion camera back to normal speed as I settled into a ready stance. I am filled with heightened awareness. I am both standing and flying simultaneously. In perfect balance between gravity and non-gravity, earth and sky. ‘I’m dreaming!’ There was a feeling of total unity, physical oneness in perfect harmony with everything around me. Next, I looked down inside my body and saw a cylindrical spinning wheel of light and energy.
The energy wheel seemed massive like a cyclotron accelerator inside me. For a moment this powerful energy source seemed to extend about 30 feet beyond my body. In that brief moment I was hovering above as perceiving awareness while the light energy whirled and whirled. Back in my body, I could feel the vibrations of the energy propellers in slow-motion. Imperceptible high-speed revolutions emanated from within— whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Amazing! I could see my energy field and feel its power. I returned to normal perception and began to walk to experiment with this new level of awareness. I immediately began to fly high above to the rooftops. And then I remembered, ‘You often go flying once lucid. Remember your mindfulness training.’ I descended back down into the Tai-Chi ready stance and began a waking meditation. I thought, 'I need to learn to fly with my feet on the ground.’ (This concept was beyond anything my conscious mind conceived and felt more like a mind transmission.) I felt an energy balance of oneness and symmetry. I was both standing and flying simultaneously, in gravity and non-gravity, I knew my place, my body in space and in time. The dream is flooded with light and energy and I woke up in a magnetic energy field trance.
When did you first experience waking synesthesia?
The waking synesthesia first began when I was doing awareness exercises at The Second City Theater and also learning Feldenkrais movement work. Both exercises started by focusing on being in the moment, being aware of my body in space, and by extension everything around me. One improvisational technique used sense memory exercises that you would replay like a kinesthetic movie. I would memorize a sensation and replay it in my mind. For example, imagine you pick up a glass of water. You feel the glass. You have a memory of the glass. Then you touch a table. Feel the table, the floor, and so on. You remember all of these sensations. Next, imagine that these sensations can be recorded like a multi-track audio recorder. Instead of audio, it is playing sensations. Now imagine that each sensation is increased and the recording then plays back all of the sensations simultaneously. This progression of attention lead to heightened visual-kinesthetic synesthesia where I felt connected to everything. Not only was I aware of my body in space. It felt like I could touch things kinesthetically outside my body in real time. It also had the sensory characteristics of a magnetic energy. There was a sense of oneness. Everything felt connected in a unified field of awareness. These experiences changed my worldview and raised questions about the nature of mind and perception.
Why do you think this 'synesthesia sense' occurs in your lucid dream state?
It is a mystery. In lucid dreaming, the visual-kinesthetic synesthesia happens spontaneously. The energy in these kinds of dreams is exponentially more powerful than anything in my waking experience. In lucid dreams, the synesthesia comes as a symphony of light and energy. One possibility is that our perceptual faculties are capable of far more and the mind creates and generates an imagined simulation. From a Western scientific perspective the brain filters stimuli to generate our experience. But we know that the brain is capable of perceiving far more. In lucid dreaming, we seem to able to experience these expanded states more easily. From an eastern perspective, it may be there is an underlying energy field and deeper levels of awareness.
Were there any concepts in lucid dreaming that helped change your perspective and realize that more is going on here?
There were two ideas in your first book that changed my perspective. The first was the metaphor that just as no sailor controls the sea— no dreamer controls the dream. Instead, the lucid dreamer relates and directs their focus within the dream. The second was the realization of a larger awareness behind the dream. I had the following dream the night after reading this idea that the lucid dreamer is similar to a sailor navigating the sea of the unconscious (or subconscious):
The Golden Sea
A rectangular light appeared in the void. I walked closer and closer. Gradually a space opened up out of the darkness. The place felt like a museum. There were glass cases with space suits, electricity brains, big airplanes hung from above. It all felt like some kind of maze. The air felt thick like I was under water. I need to find my…just then a game show arrow marquee appeared from nowhere outlined with flashing blinking lights, at the end of which was a big hand pointing at the door. Game show music played from everywhere.
As I walked slowly towards the door, I turned to my left and noticed that the walls of the room were being pulled up and away like a live-action miniature world. This revealed the next room as those walls were also lifted into the air. Soon it appeared we were on some massive sound stage that went on forever, as big as reality. Wall after wall, furniture, trees, buildings lifted up and up straight into the air to reveal an empty vanishing point exposing an infinite sound stage of the mind.
I was awestruck as I attempted to reach for the door. All thoughts emptied from me. I was flooded by the confusion of the surreal absurdism. 'Where was I going?' I thought. In slow motion, I could see my hand wrapping its fingers around a golden doorknob. 'I must open the door.' I thought in slow motion. 'I must open the door.' I twisted the knob and walked through the door…
...I fell into the black void in what seemed to be the end of the earth and all of time. It was a black sea of darkness. I fell down, down, down underwater into the murky ocean of my subconscious. I sunk deeper and deeper into a dark trance. I looked above at the beautiful shimmering golden caustic light shining down on me as I drifted into the abyss. “I'm dreaming!”
And then... a new view...a new perspective...separate from my body. Like an edit in a movie of consciousness, my awareness, was above the water looking at the most beautiful landscape I had ever seen. I had no form, I was just perceiving awareness. The ocean was lit with beautiful golden light that skimmed the surface of the water like a painting. The light was so incredible something you can only find in a magnificent impressionist painting. It was almost like the light was thick with an abstract visual texture like an oil painting, but it was living and breathing and alive. It was a misty stew. Its beauty filled my whole being.
Back in my body, I continued to fall into the darkness of my subconscious. (I remember actually thinking this during the dream) The light was getting further and further away. I fell into a deep sleep. I was being absorbed into the greenish black void. Far up above I could see the shimmering golden light. A voice said ‘Come back’ I sat there floating, floating, floating in this dark golden void.
Somehow I could see far underwater and the tiny little speck of me. I summoned all my power. As perceiving awareness— I reached my giant hand into the landscape from off-screen, like some surrealist optical illusion. A second bigger me moved my giant hand across the vast landscape in slow motion and reached into the golden ocean.
Beneath the water looking up now, I saw my giant hand plunge down, down, down, to grab myself. Now as awareness I watched my giant hand pulling my body out of the water disrupting all laws of perspective. Deep in the water, my giant hand lifted me up, up, up. The golden water and light swirled all around me. I was pulled out of the abyss with tremendous force and exploded out of the water and breathed the breath of life! “I'm alive!”
Comments:
It was very interesting that when I had this dream I was only a couple chapters into your book. I hadn’t yet read about the idea of a larger awareness. Also, it was quite surprising being two places at once in the dream. There was the ego me drifting deep into a subconscious sea. The dream then showed a larger self, first me as perceiving awareness, which then became embodied literally as a larger self with a giant hand, to reach in and save my smaller self. Also notable was, as the larger self, how everything was perceivable in a magnetic field of connected awareness. This simple sea metaphor and the possibility of an unseen larger awareness was transformative.
Some use lucid dreaming to access creativity or inner freedom. Do you have any lucid dreams of this kind?
I lucid dream family recently inspired by my childhood dreams. Lucid dreaming at times can be serious stuff. And sometimes lucid dreams just show up to express a hidden creativity. In the following lucid dream, I became a live action-animated George Harrison from The Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine. (Passages of this dream were edited for length.)
“Dream as often as you like.” - George Harrison
(This dream picks up from an earlier scene where I had been invited by a friend to the Beatles Apple Records) …The festival head continued, “But since we are also honoring the anniversary of the Beatles original Apple Studios”, more cheers, “We first will have a unique short film from the Beatles themselves!” Suddenly the movie Yellow Submarine began to play. The Animated Beatles appeared on screen as contemporary versions from the original film. As they played Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts, psychedelic colors and surreal characters danced from the screen. As they played the song, animated creatures flew out of the screen— Blue Meanies, The Dreadful Flying Glove, a winged rainbow man horse creature, and the Suck-o-chant. I thought, ‘wow that’s strange, how did they get the animation out and into the theater? I’m not wearing 3D glasses.’
When the song ended The Animated Beatles looked at the audience. There was a moment where everyone wasn’t quite sure what was happening. The Animated Beatles smiled wryly as if it were a live performance. John and Paul winked at the festival woman. I thought, ‘This is so strange. Are the Animated Beatles live somehow?’
The British woman continued, “As I said, this is a unique film, a new kind of experimental film. It is a living film. A movie come to life! Anyone who wants to come inside the film can just jump inside the screen! And anyone who wishes to become one of the characters from the film, all you have to do is jump inside them!” People cheered. “The studio is your playground!” You could jump from the movie to life and from life back to the movie. You can go back-and-forth very easily, all you have to do is use your intention!”
Just then, The Beatles leaped off the screen playing the most incredible Beatles music I had not heard before. Animated live-action visual effects appeared as they sang harmonically: “And you've got time to rectify, you can fly to electrify. ” And then all the Beatles began speaking in their classic Beatles comic gibberish wordplay. I hear, “Oh yes, I will! I will now won’t I? Oh yes, I will!” Somehow, without my own volition, powerful energy swept me off my feet, high into the air in slow motion. As the room whirled by, I wondered, ‘What is happening to me? Where am I going?’ This magnetic force poured through me like a wind. Suddenly, at high speed and with great power I flew directly into Animated George Harrison! I was filled with immense creative power. I immediately began speaking like George Harrison.
I exclaimed in a Liverpudlian accent, “I must be dream’n!” And then, I felt I was filled with the life of the universe. I had an elastic electric malleability. I felt I could do anything. I shot electric rainbows out of my hands. I played music and flung color and light into the air. I was vibrating with magnetic multicolored energy, and I felt connected to everything and everyone. I ran up to the other animated Beatles. We were all laughing and joking in all our Beatle voices. As I looked around it seemed like what those 60’s parties might have been like. The surreal Yellow Submarine creatures ran wild. A winged horse cartoon creature licked a humongous ice cream cone. A woman meditated on an elephant. Giant animated hands clapped. It was a creative playground…
…I found myself on the rooftop overlooking a live-action animated marmalade sky. I could feel a cool blue wind on my cheek. I could touch the sky with synesthesia. It was as if I was the sky and the sky was me. At that moment everything seemed possible. Animated Ringo popped out a courtyard window below and said “George, get a move on, they’re calling us back on. Come downstairs. We got to make bingo, bango, bongo!” Ringo popped back inside the window and then instantly popped down to the ground floor. ‘How did he do that?’ I thought ’How did I get up here? This whole place is a maze how will I ever get down?’ Remembering I was animated (and dreaming), I stepped onto the fire escape morphing into a malleable elastic man. I poured myself like cartoon pancake batter through the metal slats of the fire escape and onto the ground floor. I shape-shifted back into my live-action cartoon form and walked effortlessly into the party.
I met up with Paul, John, and Ringo who were having the greatest time. I wanted to savor the creativity of the moment. I looked at the other Beatles and said in a Liverpudlian accent ‘We’re dream’n!’ They looked at me puzzled. To prove it I said, “Watch...” I looked directly at a wall with my intention. I walked through the wall effortlessly as I felt a breezy vibration sensation and whoosh effect. They watched, still confused. “Watch again,” As I effortlessly walked straight through a second wall. ‘See!’ At that moment there were so many amazing things to look at-- color laser constellations, beautiful people, wise elephants, Hindus, and Buddhists meditating inside a moving Tibetan Thangka. The whole environment was just pure creativity…
…“See brother, we’re dream’n!” Ringo was still trying to believe me. Now I was determined to tell everyone at the party that we were all lucid dreaming! So I went to John. “So John,” I said. “Yeah George.” “You know we’re dream’n.” John still puzzled, “No way.” “Way, I said,” “Way! We’re dream’n!” So I took my hand, looked right at it, and showed it to him. I began swinging my hand like a paddle ball: wap-wap, wap-wap-wap! The Beatles all cracked up. John exclaimed, “Holly Moly Magoo, How do you doooo?" John handed me his hand, and says “Show me, brother!” So I took his hand in my hand and I start yo-yo’ing it— wap-wap, wap-wap-wap! Everyone was in hysterical laughter…
…At that point, I became aware of my dream body. Suddenly I was transported to a vast space as my dream body was filled with energy. I was sleeping in a magnetic energy field floating in a deep space of golden light. Giant golden hands of light surrounded and held me. I saw George Harrison’s face fill the entire dream as everything was filled in the golden magnetic light. I heard George Harrison’s voice, “You know, you can lucid dream as often as you like.”
Comments:
This dream seemed directly related to the reoccurring Beatles dreams from when I was very little. It felt like I had literally channeled my animated childhood into my adult self. For some reason, this film had such a profound effect on how I saw the world. The film is just very imaginative. It may be that I saw it at such a young age or maybe that I first saw it in the middle of the night. Also notable was that I hadn’t listened to the Beatles in ages because I had associated their music from specific times from my childhood. At the time of the dream, I was asking myself about the relationship between spirituality and creativity. I hadn't previously had any special connection to George Harrison, but the dream seems to be an answer to this question, the main message being— don’t forget to play.
Could you speak a little about your interest in the potential of lucid dreaming for health?
Well at the base level, it appears lucid dreaming has the potential to work on a deep level of the self directly with the unconscious (or subconscious). Psychology and psychotherapy show how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, create and shape our subjective reality. Many of these processes are completely habitual. Research points to the possibility that a majority of our brain's activity is unconscious. In your last book, you discuss Carl Jung’s theory “a second psychic system coexisting with consciousness.” Lucid dreamers often discover similar experiences of awareness that they experience as both beyond them and a part of them. Lucid dreaming offers the opportunity to understand the relationship between these conscious and unconscious phenomena both for deeper understanding and for health.
In a more direct way, I first became interested in the possibility of lucid dreams for healing, as a result of my energy dreams. These lucid dreams seemed to be leading towards integration whether through conflict or revelation. The dreams were so powerful I began to wonder if changes to the dream body would change the physical body. When I began reading more I discovered many lucid dreamers frequently share similar accounts of healings with energy and light. Your books provide many accounts of lucid dreamers experiences with energy. I particularly took note both yours and Ed Kellogg’s Ph.D. work around energy and healing which has helped to both understand normalize non-ordinary experiences. I feel very grateful to have read your book as well as Ed’s contributions. The potential for lucid dreaming in the areas of psychology, healing, meditation, and overall health continues to be of great interest to me.
Sometimes lucid dreamers encounter geometric symbols, as they go deeper. What did you make of this?
Dreams continue to show me new levels of awareness in a variety of forms. Sometimes my body expands into an energy field beyond my dream body. Within this field, it seems like I can sense everything on some deeper frequency. Sometimes I exist only as perceiving awareness. In other dreams, I have spontaneously become symbols or sacred geometry of energy and light. The following dream excerpts occurred during your course with Ed Kellogg Ph.D. after he had presented lessons about the Tree of Life and a paper on the possibility that reality exists— not as we perceive it, but instead within abstract code similar to the film The Matrix.
Merkahbah = X
I am at a library after the music concert. Ed Kellogg appeared and presented an equation #+#=X. He held a number which floated in space above him cycling like Matrix code. My synesthesia awareness tuned to the frequency of the number to solve the equation. Suddenly my body metamorphosed into geometric electric light. I was a combination of laser lines and triangles. My new form calibrated itself rapidly twisting and turning like solving a geometric puzzle like the Rubik’s cube. There was a burst of energy as I reconstituted myself and clicked into place. I was a laser light double pyramid Merkabah! 30 x 30 feet floating in space as light and sound. Ed’s mystery number stopped cycling and watched.
Ed's number started cycling. As a Merkabah, I began to solve the combination. With another massive burst of energy and light, I clicked into place and became a second Merkabah. Two Merkabah’s floated vibrating in space. The solution to the equation was presented Merkabah + Merkabah = (X).
I was filled with energy and power beyond my conscious understanding. I was witnessing the experience. Next, I began vibrating as two Merkabah’s as the frequency increased again. Then the X symbol began vibrating. The frequency of energy increased until the equation revealed: Merkabah + Merkabah = Torah! There was a burst of light and I became aware of my sleeping body. With dual awareness, as the Merkabah electric light form equation, I entered a waking trance.
Beyond The Matrix
Ed Kellogg was talking about the inter-dimensional mathematical matrix reality. He said, “These realities exist everywhere, all around us.” Matrix code began to emanate from his body. As he spoke he entered a waking trance. His matrix code filled the whole classroom. Suddenly Ed entered a levitating lotus position. His GUI matrix code then transformed into synesthesia energy. Ed began glowing with light. The entire room was now tuning to a new frequency that connected everyone in our class… (Several students began demonstrating super powers of consciousness…sequence edited for length.)
I was trying to make sense of all their transformations. I thought, ‘I must have missed the first part of class where Ed gave instructions on how to enter the Matrix.’ (Earlier I had come into the class late entering through a magic portal) I didn't even understand the teaching or how any of this was happening. I decided I would just watch and wait.
Suddenly a magnetic force circulated through my whole system. I lifted up and began slowly spinning. Geometric forms encoded into my energy body. I entered a deep dimension. As I levitated, the new matrix software entered my system. Geometric circles, within squares, within triangles, created lines of energy within me. I was now in a dream trance as the mathematical geometric system circulated code and energy through me. I expanded in a geometric form about 18 x 30 feet high. I rotated slowly into an energy vortex and into intricate forms of geometric laser light.
As energy awareness I circulated into semi-kaleidoscopic geometric forms. I felt a long cord of energy down my spine going up and out and into the earth. I was filled with four giant laser circle forms. Then I transformed into code. Then the four circles transformed into four spheres of emerging energy. I levitated and expanded within the new frequency of geometric energy and light.
Comments
What do I make if it? It is a mystery. Funny, I am not at all math person. When I had these dreams, I made no special preparations, I had just read Ed’s course material. I actually had another Merkabah dream prior to these when I had only glanced at the first paragraph of his Tree of Life paper. This was all quite surprising. So how and why this occurred I don’t know, maybe through some kind of dream osmosis? I recently became familiar with the work of Cognitive psychologist Donald Hoffman who presents theories that we perceive reality like a simulation that translates and generates what we observe. These dreams seem to speak to these questions. Often we learn about theoretical concepts whether they be in science, psychology, philosophy, religion, etc. and only think about them. In lucid dreaming, there appears to be an opportunity for first-hand experience. More specifically, this was not just a remote visual experience as when you watch a film. Once I entered this geometric energy awareness I no longer perceived my body. Instead, my whole being was a giant symbol of energy awareness. I felt energy exponentially beyond physical perception. Communicating this experience in words does not begin to describe the depth of the energy that I felt. It’s ineffable. Ultimately, I would say it raises questions about the nature of self and mind.
You seem to have transcendent lucid dreams, which go beyond the normal lucid dream self-activity. Do you have an excerpt of a transcendent lucid dream? How do you explain that to yourself?
Cosmic Mandala
I was traveling through doors of reality in a stain glass mandala of various dimensions. I was awareness. I had no body. I was in outer space or another dimension. As I approached, I saw a light curving as it peaked over a horizon. At that moment I saw one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Slowly coming into view was an infinite stain glass mandala realm— a world as vast as the sky. It seemed like I was only glimpsing a piece of it, as it appeared to go on forever. It looked like a massive spaceship of light and sound— a Tibetan mandala with the most intricate kaleidoscopic prismatic glowing light. I was somehow flying in the cosmos while also floating in stillness. I watched without thought. I watched with my whole being. I was the mandala and the mandala was me. I was outside of it, yet I was a part of it. I was as big as space. As I watched (as perceiving awareness) I began to look closer at each individual window within the mandala. Each kaleidoscopic teardrop window contained a small world of life within itself. Inside the windows were various scenes, places and times. You could go inside them and travel wherever you wanted to go by projecting your consciousness. I could see infinitely small scenes of people and places. Suddenly I could hear see and feel the eternal chanting of cosmic sound. I felt the unifying vibration of life as my whole being was filled by the stain glass mandala of celestial light and sound. I was in an ecstatic consciousness of wonder. It was magnificent. All was one.
Comments:
At some point, mandalas began showing up in my dreams in a variety of ways. I was not at all studying mandalas or religious texts of any kind. They just began appearing. Sometimes I would spontaneously activate a laser light mandala in a dream figures body. Sometimes they appear as a resolution to a conflict. Or a mandala would appear while I was healing someone or being healed. In other dreams, an entire architectural space would move like a massive kaleidoscopic mandala, very similar to some of the sequences in the movie Dr. Strange. Dreams like this seem to bypass my identity completely and all stages of lucidity. How do I explain it? All I can say is there is something quite mysterious at work here.
Finally, would you like to share any lucid dreams that gave you a profound realization or special insight?
Recently I had the following dream which is short and seemingly very simple but contains an important message.
Beautiful Blue Light
I was in a dark room. The three of us were talking in the darkness. The room was lit only by moonlight. One man was talking to the other lit in silhouette. He said, “the light of awareness is not just for monks.” Then the other man said, “One can awaken to the light of awareness at any time. You will know it when you see it. It will hit you like a lightning bolt. You just need to be open to it.” Then the two men turned and looked at me. Then one of the men lit a match. A spark ignited a bright blue flame to a candle. This flame grew into a beautiful energy field of spherical blue light. It was so beautiful I became entranced by the light. A deep tone of sound circled around the light creating an energy field within the room which reverberated deep within me. Then one of the men said, “Once you are presented with the light and you are ready...it will ignite the light of awareness within your soul and within your whole being.” The light circled around and around and grew into a giant spherical magnetic energy field as large as the whole room. I heard a deep vibrating tone that eclipsed the room and reverberated through my whole being. The swirling energy vortex grew larger and larger. As it came towards me, I could feel the energy vibration of light and sound growing from deep within me until I merged with the energy awareness. I became the beautiful blue light.
Many thanks for taking the time to share your perspective on dreams and lucid dreaming.
Thank you, Robert! I just want to thank you again for all your and Ed’s work!
View Jesse’s website at www.jessejacobs.tv
This article was released in issue from
June 2019
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