The Dream Cartography Thread

[KestrelKat]

I reread my DJ for this. I never visit the same place twice, but there are recurring types (forest, town, ...). I can't even say if every area of settlement belongs to the same town. How do you tell how your places are connected? Along the lines of what ThreeCat said, I mostly go by the feeling Sometimes I will have a definite distance marker (I can see the Big City from many of my mountainous locations, and therefore know a rough distance/direction), but when I don't (say, in a small town or somewhere else entirely) I usually just... know where I am. Like, when I was at Grog in one of my dreams, I just had this funny inkling that I was on Lake Michigan. The towns usually give me the same kind of knowing-feeling. It's a little confusing owo I don't have many dreams where I can judge how long it takes me to get to another place, so it's harder for me to do it that way... as I fill in the spaces on my map, I'll hopefully get a better sense of the distances, but for now I go mainly on intuition and feeling.

[Nightfeather]

I think the problem is that I don't dream of getting from one place another. I might dream of forests and suburbs in the same night but not in the same dream. Also, I have never revisited a specific place. A different question: Do you differentiate between night and day? My city seems to be mostly at night, whilst it is always day in the suburbs.

[KestrelKat]

I've never really thought of that...! Now that I do, there are definitely places which are usually during the night, and some that are usually during the day... I'll be keeping better track of that from now on, it would be interesting to find out if there was a correlation!

[LucidProdigy]

Started last night and off to a good start. I had a dream in which I was in a building to see someone because I was psychologically sick. I had trouble navigating the building (because of the actual layout and my drowsiness in the dream). Upon waking up, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been to that place before. I concluded that it was the local hospital I had visited a couple of weeks ago to get drug tested for a job (it also makes sense, because I remember getting lost on the lower levels trying to find the correct room for the drug test). It's a bit of a stretch...but I had a psychological sickness in the dream. I recall feeling the exact same in the dream as I did when I woke up from it (very drowsy), so could I have just had really low lucidity? In that case, does this place in my dream realm represent a psychological hospital, and I was there in that particular instance to 'cure' my low lucidity? Just some thoughts..but interesting nonetheless. I'm excited to continue my observations and to eventually start on my map.

[Queen Zukin]

I think the problem is that I don't dream of getting from one place another. I might dream of forests and suburbs in the same night but not in the same dream. Also, I have never revisited a specific place. A different question: Do you differentiate between night and day? My city seems to be mostly at night, whilst it is always day in the suburbs. You have never dreamed of being home, at school, or at work? These are the central elements that your dream map will revolve upon...things that the dreamer dreams often about. After that, it will be based upon subtleties that will be less noticeable. It is easy enough to place locations on your map, but to tie them together you need to strengthen your recall/awareness enough to remember how they fit. Revisiting the same dream location is not noticeable at first...it may take months or years. I've come to realize that there are similarities as I've kept a dream journal here for over 5 years, and I can usually verify these experiences.

[Nightfeather]

You have never dreamed of being home, at school, or at work? Well, my uni does appear quite often. It would be a challenge in itself to map it because it's layout changes every time. I had a dream though which connects it to the industrial area. It was also connected to a wooded area in another dream but I'm sceptical if that is the main forest. I guess seven months aren't sufficient for enough transitions. Also, how much influence do expectations have here? Is there a different result if one works on dream cartography compared to 'normal' dream journaling?

[KestrelKat]

Also, how much influence do expectations have here? Is there a different result if one works on dream cartography compared to 'normal' dream journaling? I think a lot of dream-related things are effected by expectations. I'm not so good at dream control yet, but they say that the key is to expect something to happen, and it does. I'd hazard a guess that it's the same with Dream Cartography, but I'm finding it hard to put it into words, sorry >__< As for me though, my "normal" dream journaling hasn't changed much since I started on my map. I paid attention to scenery before, too, the only difference is now I'm trying to pay more attention to where I am within the realm of my consciousness rather than simply where I am.

[ThreeCat]

I think a lot of dream-related things are effected by expectations. I'm not so good at dream control yet, but they say that the key is to expect something to happen, and it does. I'd hazard a guess that it's the same with Dream Cartography, but I'm finding it hard to put it into words, sorry >__< Hi Kestrel kat, one thing I've noticed about dream control is that if you have an idea as to why your dream control should work, then it makes expectation much easier. For example, you say to yourself, "Hmm, this chain link fence looks a bit like cellophane--I bet it would tear like cellophane" with the result if you being able to easily tear the fence open. It should work the same way in a lucid dream in finding a place, but dream cartography is supposed to use NLDs so I don't know. Hopefully this ramble was helpful. If not, well...

[KestrelKat]

Hi Kestrel kat, one thing I've noticed about dream control is that if you have an idea as to why your dream control should work, then it makes expectation much easier. For example, you say to yourself, "Hmm, this chain link fence looks a bit like cellophane--I bet it would tear like cellophane" with the result if you being able to easily tear the fence open. It should work the same way in a lucid dream in finding a place, but dream cartography is supposed to use NLDs so I don't know. Hopefully this ramble was helpful. If not, well... I have heard that, as well! Mostly my issue is not remembering to try to control things when I get lucid. I'm usually so busy just observing things and feeling the lucid dream that I forget to actually do things. I was able to hover easily in one of them. I simply jumped and flew through the halls of a building about a foot off the ground. I think what I was getting at with the expectations in Dream Cartography was that if you expect and know to look for connections between places, you will have more dreams that allow you to notice those connections. Or rather you'll just be able to see the connections better. It's like when a number becomes significant to you personally, and suddenly you see it all over the place. It was always there, you just didn't notice it all over until it had some significance. If that makes sense. owo

[KestrelKat]

Weee, weekly weekend update to my dream map: I redrew it all. Spent a little more time than I was planning to spend on it. But it looks nice if I do say so myself! And I'm almost positive about the locations of most of these things, so I don't think I'll need to redo much of this. It's just adding and accounting for more spaces when I find out there's more between things than I accounted for. Dream Map So Far and Map Of Big City

[KestrelKat]

Not much added to my map in the last week, due to a dryspell in dreaming D: I'll update it this Friday.

[Hilary]

Here is my map so far - I've got a lot of work to do on it still, but I am mainly focusing on the 'big' dreams that are very memorable. Each post-it is a a different dream area, and usually a separate dream. I'm numbering them as well, so that I can recall how many times I've dreamed of a very similar/possibly same location. Connection points (boats, cars, trains, etc) are outlined, to show how I got from one dream area to the next. I've also had old dreams from long ago pop into my memory (about 5 or so, so far).

[KestrelKat]

Here is my map so far - I've got a lot of work to do on it still, but I am mainly focusing on the 'big' dreams that are very memorable. Each post-it is a a different dream area, and usually a separate dream. I'm numbering them as well, so that I can recall how many times I've dreamed of a very similar/possibly same location. Connection points (boats, cars, trains, etc) are outlined, to show how I got from one dream area to the next. I've also had old dreams from long ago pop into my memory (about 5 or so, so far). Those post-its look so detailed!! Nice job! I want to add color to mine, but I'm afraid that as soon as I do, I'll realize something is way off and have even more to fix =w=

[Queen Zukin]

The "remembering" has begun. It started last night when I was about to fall asleep. I remembered a dream in which I was in the basement of a very large campus library playing tag. In that dream I was playing tag and I recalled using prior knowledge of having been in a different dream inside a library with the exact same layout to hide from my opponent in an office in the basement. Suddenly, I remembered an older dream where I was in the same library (which doesn't exist IRL). In this dream, I was attending an art class next to where I labeled "big window." Across from the big window is a staircase, same next to the office room. The layout of the library was exactly the same in both dreams. I remembered a third dream in which I was in the same library, but I didn't contain myself to the bottom floor. I investigated the upper floors, which look down on the lower floors from a railing. The upper floors had computers. Then, I remembered more dreams. I was suddenly remembering other buildings that I had ventured into and their corresponding dream basements. I remembered again some more old dreams about when I used to live in Germany. In these dreams, the German city was very...gypsy styled. The roads weren't big enough to put a car on, and were windy and were lined with merchant stalls. I remembered four specific dreams relating to this specific city: 1. walking down the windy road looking at all the weird shops in the german city, getting distracted by everything 2. again, walking down this road, but at/near the very end of it was a large ice cream shop with delicious ice cream 3. walking on a road vividly perpendicular to the other windy street, I went into one of the merchant tents and found that the store sold a combination of books and soaps 4. again, being in the merchant city, but this time there was a giant waterslide positioned in the city. I started thinking about libraries again and found that I could withdraw a bunch of forgotten dreams about libraries. These libraries were different from the one above, but all of them had two things in common: they were split level and had dimmed lights. I found it really easy to remember old dreams from simply thinking about a location. The "remembering" has stopped for now. Here is my updated dream map for this week: Here is a zoom into the "city" area: Some locations are circled because their boundaries are unknown. While updating, I also had more revelations about the locations of the "renaissance city" and the "larp field." There is definitely a city on my map that is encircled by wooden sticks, like a city wall. When I think about it, I can remember really specific things about it, but trying to put them together is a very difficult logic puzzle.

[KestrelKat]

Update coming tomorrow...

[Kholinar]

KestrelKat, You're definitely on the right track. The key is to find those archetypal places in your dreams. The structure should be mostly the same, not the particulars. And it seems like you're making some great steps in that direction. I'm like some of the others in this thread, I've been fascinated by the stories (or possibly mythology) of the dreamhackers. It's hard to know how much of the stories are true, but much of their information about the dream landscape rings true immediately. So I've spent a lot of time with translation enabled on the old russian sites trying to parse things. The Dream Searchers books provide some clues and there are a few sites out there that still provide good info on things like the Patience of Medici (which I won't go into in this thread, because it's a complicated subject). But mostly we're left with having to attempt the work ourselves. Back to the mapping and dream recall. Mapping is mostly about the transits and that's hugely important because it gives you that greater landscape... but simply recognizing the main locations is a huge step. For example, in my dreams I often recognize what the dreamhackers call "The Tower". In my dreams it was once a house with many levels filled with all sorts of great and terrible things. These days it's often more like a skyscraper mall, again with vast amounts of interesting things on each floor. An elevator (or a central shaft that can be navigated in other ways) is always present. But there are other dreams with elevators that have nothing to do with them. One is the Airport. It changes all the time. Sometimes it might be Amsterdam or Chicago or Dallas, other times it might be a small airport like Kansas City or Denver... but it's the same place. A lake filled with deadly, sleeping creatures. A railway that leads to an urban ruin. A cavern in a mountainside. A mundane library. It's often the mundane locations that will give you the most insight. Just like you, spending time thinking about a library gives me handfuls of long-forgotten dreams. Keep going if you can. I haven't reached much farther than that, but it seems worth it. It's exciting that some of you are trying to move this forward. One word of warning (along with those the dreamhackers give[which you can take or leave, but it's always good to be careful]) - altering your consciousness by other means can obscure your dream landscape for a while. The structures are still there, but the surface becomes a distraction. All this is just my own experience and opinion, of course.

[KestrelKat]

Were you talking to me or to Zukin, just curious. I think she's the one who mentioned a library (It's been so long since any of us updated our maps, uh-oh! I have things to add to mine, I have just been too busy!)

[KestrelKat]

In a sort of update: I've noticed that Zukin's place has moved really close to my home in my dreamscapes. I wonder what that means about how often I'm there and how comfortable I feel there now, hehe.

[Kholinar]

Were you talking to me or to Zukin, just curious. I think she's the one who mentioned a library (It's been so long since any of us updated our maps, uh-oh! I have things to add to mine, I have just been too busy!) Ah, sorry about that. I looked at the wrong avatar apparently. Regardless, it's great that you've all been working on these. I've been slacking for a while. Time to pick it back up...

[KestrelKat]

Ah, sorry about that. I looked at the wrong avatar apparently. Regardless, it's great that you've all been working on these. I've been slacking for a while. Time to pick it back up...

[ShinyAeon]

I've always loved exploring in my dreams, and I love maps, so I love this idea! But I have to ask...what about dreams that take place on different planets? I've had one very memorable dream that was very definitely on another planet (possibly Mars), one on the Moon (though that one was much less realistic...more like "The Moon Theme Park," lol), and at least one that took place on a space station (with zero-G and everything ); would these go on the map at all, or would they be in separate, um, "dream spheres" that need separate maps? For now I think I'll stick them in little sections of their own, like Hawaii and Alaska get in maps of the U.S....yeah....that's the ticket....

[KestrelKat]

I'm not sure, but I've seen at least one person represent "up" In this case as north on their map. So above the land map was "space". I thought it was an interesting way of representing 3-D space on a 2-D map But I'm not sure what the convention would be for this as far as dream mapping goes.

[Kholinar]

If we think of dreams as a computer game, then something like the moon or other planets are just a skin over familiar levels. You won't always recognize that structure underneath

[Kholinar]

Just put them wherever for now, eventually they'll all link up.

[ShinyAeon]

If we think of dreams as a computer game, then something like the moon or other planets are just a skin over familiar levels. You won't always recognize that structure underneath... I don't game, so I'm not sure what you mean. In my alien-planet dream, the fact that I was in one of maybe four widely-separated cities on an otherwise barren world, with no easy way to return to Earth, was a big part of the scenario. It was also weirdly unlike most of the locations in my dreams; I had the sense of hundreds and hundreds of miles of barren, rocky planet all around, cutting us off from any other city, and billions of miles of space (involving months of spaceship-travel) cutting us off from the rest of humanity. It was an integral part of the dream's "plot." I just can't imagine a landscape like that "linking up" to anything in my Earth-set dreams.... Just put them wherever for now, eventually they'll all link up. That's what I'm going to do, in a separate "box," like they do on maps where one part of the territory is too far away to include in the main map.