The Next Oneironauticum is Saturday, February 28

On Saturday, February 28th. We'll be working with a Dreamtime Somalixir created by our pals at Al-Kemi, made of spagyrics of Calea Zacatechichi, Silene Capensis, and Mugwort, all oneirogens we’ve worked with in past Oneironauticum sessions. This specific combination is designed to promote the ability to maintain consciousness in dream states, either to promote lucid dreaming or merely enhance dream awareness.

Visit Al Kemi to purchase the Dreamtime Somalixir or learn more about it. If you’re interested in learning more about Spagyrics (the production of tinctures using alchemical processes), take a look at the Spagyric Wikipedia entry.

If you do visit the Al-Kemi site, you can also obtain the Oneirogen for our March 28 session, a Waterlilies Somalixir.

As always, remote participation is welcomed. To participate remotely in the Oneironauticum, simply enjoy your oneirogen wherever you’re sleeping on the night of Saturday the 28th and join us in the dream world. You may also, as always, participate by simply going to sleep with the intention to share in our group dreaming experience. Anyone who participates, either in person or remotely, is welcome to post their dream experiences to this blog. Contact us if you're interested.

Sweet Dreams!

medicine woman, by Christy

A magic woman appeared in my dream blowing smoke over me and my sister. It was a ritual of some sort, and the woman was native American, or had some resonance with native Americans.

I was on the floor with my head to the ground. The woman kept blowing smoke onto me and I went up into dolphin asana, the yoga pose where you’re on your feet and your elbows. The woman continued blowing smoke and I went up into headstand, then into one armed headstand, then I levitated off of the ground.

It was a very powerful dream. I’ve had a dream like this once before.

Family Picnic, by Jacob

Picnic on a beautiful grassy hill with all of my Israeli relatives, eating food, flying kites. Some of us go hiking onto a 26 thousand high frozen mountain pass in the Himalayas where we visit some Tibetan Lamaseries.

When we get back to the picnic, one of the kites which has been fashioned from a plastic shopping bag flies away and I chase after it. A younger member of my extended family sees the escaped kites and I say, “hey, could you please throw the kite away when you’re finished with it? We don’t want it to become garbage”. She says sure.

At point throughout this, I realize that I am wearing a green bunny suit, much like the white one Erik wore in his recent performance, How to Survive the Apocalypse.

White Receipts, by Vibrata

I don’t know if I can say anything to ancestral communication or lucidity, but it is nice to be able to remember something about my dreams since that’s been lacking in my life lately.

The overall theme seemed to be “busy-ness”; going places and doing things with people; getting stuff done. At first I was dreaming about our gathering and some sort of preparation we were doing. There were stickers we needed to make, and I was organizing designs on sheets of paper, trying to make them fit well, conserving space. There was some traveling involved, and finding the right route.

A later dream involved Erik (was he the ancestral influence?). We were expensing an event of some sort, going through receipts and invoices. I showed him one receipt that was yellow, and he let me know that it would be better to have white ones.

elephant dreaming, by Christine

My ability to connect with my dreams symbolically was much stronger than usual over the past two nights of dreaming. This expanded seeing happened at the Oneironauticum, and then the night after, when we had our homeopathic dose in the morning. I didn't find there to be too much of a difference between my dreams the first and second night, only the first night, I had more time to enjoy hynopompia. My second night dream was like this:

A photographer had a elephant on it's belly, then put it's arms and legs behind it's back and tied them all together with thick white rope so that he could photograph her. The elephant was anesthesized so she wasn't aware of what was being done. They were in what was once a stadium, but was now a ruin, near a pond. The earth beneath them was dry and solid. She started to wake up and realized she was tied. The huge, grey elephant began to shake. The shaking became so much that a dirt cloud began to form and make a mushroom shape over the elephant, who began to stand on all fours. The photographer ran, knowing the elephant was going to chase him. He was afraid and hid behind the stadium wall, on the side near the pond. The elephant didn't go chasing after the photographer, who was surprised, having expected that he would be chased. The elephant went on her own way.

Obtuse Messages, by Jennifer

Several of us slept in the same space, a slumber party, sort of Oneironauticum, but also not. Several Buddhist monks were there, scattered in beds and wandering about. A couple of them kept turning on the television, though our hostess specifically said she didn’t want it on. I kept telling them to turn it off again. The Zen Buddhist master who founded one of the main lineages in the states and with whom I had the honor to study, Hakuin Taizan Maezumi Roshi, kept trying to talk me out of my last three dollars. I finally gave it to him. The monks kept repeating a word or phrase, using it in different ways and contexts. I knew the phrase was really important, but I didn’t understand it, couldn’t quite make it out.

In a later dream, I walked through a wintry street lined with big snow banks, piles of ice and snow everywhere. I was loaded down with luggage, a rolly bag pulled behind me and several purses and duffel bags slung over my shoulders. Everything was awkward, bags slipping off and falling as I stumbled in the snow. Then the rolly bag got stuck on something I couldn’t see and I yanked it hard. It feel over in the snow and all my other bags tumbled to the ground as well. A homeless man approached me and told me that clearly the salt rock he’d placed there had caught my bag. Then he wandered off snickering.

If the silene capensis was supposed to provide messages from one’s ancestors, I’m really not sure what mine wanted to say. A few of the oneironauts suggested that the latter dream might involve my ancestors urging me to lose my baggage.

Minutes of the January Oneironauticum, by Jennifer

In attendance at the January 31 Oneironauticum were dreamers Erik Davis, Vibrata Chromodoris, David Shamanik, lissa ivy tiegel, Dean Mermell, Christine Benvenuto, Katherine Rochlin, Geneva Bumb Shanti, Jacob Nasim, Spiros Antonopolus, Erin Flynn, Christy Silness, Rebecca Devi Leanord, and yours truly, Jennifer Dumpert.

We began the evening by gathering around and checking out the proto type I just received in the mail, a multi-part device designed to increase dream recall and intensify dreams. A technological oneirogen in the tradition of the Nova Dreamer, this device includes auditory components timed to launch when the sleeper enters REM sleep, a sensory vibratory element keyed to the music, a mask that flashes LED lights behind closed eyelids also along with the music, an olfactory component that uses heat to release a scent during REM, and the sadly exclusive penis awareness component. Apparently, men reliably become erect at the onset of REM. When this happens, this component sets everything else in motion, the sound, the light, the scent, whatever you’ve set. We ladies will just have to use the timer. More on this device in future posts.

We took the Silene Capensis around 11:00 and stayed up a while before sleep. Over brunch the next morning, we discussed our dreams. Many of us dreamed of white—either snow or walls or even receipts. Several of us dreamed of figures who clearly held wisdom, Tibetan Lamas, Buddhist Monks, a woman with magical powers. Rebecca, a circus performer and workshop leader, received a clear message that she was to learn anatomy. Christine received a dream in response to a question she asked about her personal life. Spiros received a nightmare, a three chested, multi armed dude with lots of weapons (knives, swords, unidentifiable scary things) chasing him. Later, in a subsequent dream, several birds asked him if the dude was Spiros’ ancestor.