Posted by davidarnott on June 22, 1999 at 11:43:12:
In Reply to: Help, I have not remembered a dream at all in a year! What can I do to Remember???? please help I want to remember but cant. To my knowledge I am not even dreaming. N.M. posted by booyah on June 01, 1999 at 19:24:07:
: d
Dear N.M. Really heavy and colorful dreams
typically occur during a distinct phisiological
phase of sleep called REM, or Rapid Eye Movement
phase of sleep. (goddamn this text window I
can't write or think if I can't see what I just
wrote or thunk before me((bad short term memory)))
One real interesting way to access heavy
dreaming is to have a friend watch you during
your sleep and note the onset of an REM period
(they watch your eyes for fluttering movements)
(about every 45 minutes) when it ends
(about 15 minutes) they wake you up.
It's really hard to wake up right then and you
will fight it like crazy but if you can get up
then you might remember the contents of the REM
period. There is some computer software that
does this automatically I have heard.
I personally use certain nutrients to enhance
dream recall (Nature's Plus Source of Life
Multivitamins before I go to sleep, I suspect
the spirulena in them is what does it,
some people suggest B vitamins, a big shot of
brewer's yeast or bee pollen before bed would
be a good way to do it.)
An interesting concept of dream recall is
that really emotionally stable people have
really distinct dream cycles and lower recall
than less stable people ending at the polar
extreme with schiztophrenics who exhibit no
measurable REM (I wish I could verify this
and point to a piece of research but I am
just scratching from memory). The Schitzophrenics
would appear to be in a dreamlike state while
awake. Thus it seems that a balance of madness
and sanity is required in order to interact deeply
with your dream life and maintain a "normal" phy
sical and social life. "Healthy and well
adjusted" by the standards of american psychology
and society may also mean being disconnected from
the source of something crucial to fulfillment.
I personally am developing a ritual that I per
form before going to bed that seems to be working
well for me. I have an altar and I get down on
my fucking knees (I cannot tell you the amount of
inner resistance I have to this ritual no matter
how many times in a row I do it) enter into the
best best trancelike state that I am able
(meditation exercise, fourteen breaths worth until
I start to spin in 360 degrees) and then bring up
the most important dream images or figures and
prostrate myself before their awesome power (again
I must reiterate and emphasise the intensity and
consistency of inner resistance this exercise
consistently provokes)A little dialoging,
requesting BEGGING, pleading, etc. I just want
to say that the key element here is SACRIFICE, for
me the greatest and most painful sacrifice is to
show honor and subservience to anything other
than my own fucking self (or Ego, in Jungian
terms). This ritual is powerful enough that if
I do it too many days in a row it will leave me
staggering in the streets unable to focus on every
day life and my mind swimming with images. So I
have to plan it and lay off it for awhile.