Blue_Opossum

Afternoon of February 1, 2018. Thursday.



It begins like this. A person gets undressed for bed. Perhaps he or she sits or lies in bed for a time, while undressed, before going to sleep. Perhaps they watch television or talk on the telephone while undressed in bed in their preparation to go to sleep. They might think about recent social encounters as they sit or lie in bed, while preparing for sleep, while undressed. Later, they might have a dream of being undressed, perhaps in public, and then after waking, wonder “what it could mean”. Still, it is neither my place nor purpose to make light of society’s unfathomable buffoonery and shortsightedness in my public dream journal.

---

This entry focuses mainly on first-level dream state indicators. In this case, beds, bed sheets, and pillows are the focus as a reference entry to link (viable dream journal websites only, as on other sites it will just remain as a singular post).

Because dream state indicators of this nature occur in over twenty percent of my dreams, which I consider as quite natural and obvious, I have created this no-brainer reference entry for people who might otherwise puzzle over what this or that means in my dream journal. Still, there are specific threads of meaning depending on when and how a dream state indicator is rendered, especially if it is separate from other elements. (For example, although I often fly with a bed sheet as a “cloak” or “cape”, a bed as a flight symbol is uncommon.)

A bed could easily serve as either induction symbolism or waking transition symbolism. I do not consider it as pure autosymbolism since I relate autosymbolism as non-literal factors within the dream state (even though liminal space symbolism is analogically literal to real-life liminal space settings). For example, a bed in a parking lot (as I have actually dreamt a few times) would be a dream state indicator rendered into liminal space autosymbolism, even though this is a form of composite redundancy, where both factors, bed and parking lot, are indicative of being between dreaming and waking.

When I was very young, I used to see dream state indicators as a minimal form of RAS mediation (even serving to subliminally ground me to my real environment) to remind my dream self that my physical body is unconscious. In a way, that is still true, though I tend to see it more as a biological factor that carries over into the dream state, as impressions of one’s real environment often carry over into the dream state, especially the tactile nature of pillows and bed sheets. Even so, it could also just be a residual subliminal memory of having fallen asleep (assuming a deeper state of unconsciousness where environmental factors are not as influential).

I have often used a bed sheet or blanket to cover my body (when otherwise nude) in both lucid and non-lucid flying dreams (and certainly not because of modesty, as who cares about modesty in the dream state, but because of the realism of certain environmental factors in dreams, such as twigs and roof features). This validates that my dream self is aware of the status of my physical body, at least to a degree. Of course, in lucid dreams I do this on purpose, though in non-lucid dreams, it is a carryover factor, unrelated to waking life since the carryover is by habit of dream state awareness, not waking life focus. (One would assume this as obvious, but as I have learned, especially since 2013, empty-headedness, especially when it comes to understanding the dream state, is a dominant factor in many people.)

Pillows are in contrast to bed sheets as a dream state indicator in some dreams due to their association with vivid hypnagogia in childhood dreams. I saw pillows, mainly only those of one pale color, as a sort of hypnagogic “television” (even before I ever watched much television in reality.) By shifting my dream self’s gaze from pillow imagery to my dream’s much larger environment, I could vivify my dream and in contrast, by pulling the dream content in my dream’s larger environment “back” into my dream’s pillow, an implied threat becoming smaller and two-dimensional, restricted to the surface of my pillowcase, it became far less of an implied threat. This may be why I have rarely ever had significant nightmares other than singular examples when biologically premonitory.

Beds in unusual locations are as so, because a dream state indicator is typically unrelated to the rest of a dream’s content other than in the redundant example given above; bed in parking lot; though a bed in a lake is induction symbolism (as water is autosymbolism for entry into the dream state, and as a result, even a glass of water splashed in the face can vivify a dream).

There are times when dream state indicators of this kind are prescient, for example, in foreshadowing an illness. This includes cloaked figures (though not always) as a bed sheet or blanket association. There were two recent dreams about two of our sons, both related to them being in bed and somewhat tired, and both prior to a serious (though short-term) illness. One of these dreams included a cloaked figure of our youngest son’s height. However, such dreams also have a specific mood, which I hope to learn to hone in on to a more viable extent. Additionally, actually being tired in a dream (not necessarily being in bed) is an entirely different concept than just being in bed or seeing a bed incidentally, and usually indicates actual physical tiredness (at least for me).

---

Afternoon of February 1, 2018. Thursday.



Until I began to develop a greater understanding of dreams at about age twelve (though I had long since viewed “dream dictionaries”, or any books or articles on a dream’s supposed meaning, as asinine), RAS mediation, especially in apex lucidity, was more likely to render an attacking dog as a waking alert factor than a snake. There is a specific reason for this. While a snake is probably the oldest waking trigger (and of which likely serves as such for the dreams of all primates), a dog has an autosymbolic association with an attempt to control the dream state. I began to naturally both lucid dream and attempt dream state manipulation as a toddler and recognized the aggressive dog autosymbolism by around age eight, including in a later dream from 1970 where I shouted “You dogs are always ruining my dreams” when I was in an extremely clear state of apex lucidity. This caused the dog to teleport (ironically at my unintentional command) to trigger waking with the hypnopompic lower back jab event (the dog’s hard nose pressing into the small of my back). This is solely due to the “obedience” factor. It serves as a metaphor for the dream being obedient for the dreamer as would a dog for its owner. The main problem with this is that dreams are of a biological process and full biological control of one’s mind is inherently limited, not only by current biological needs (such as a need to use a toilet) and environmental factors, but by circadian rhythms. It is not the “subconscious” (as in popular myth) that has anything to do with this, but RAS.

It was common for a dog, usually black or rust-colored, often a Labrador, to be rendered as a potential dream state terminator in early childhood. However, over time, as I mastered RAS mediation to a certain point in the 1980s with hundreds of experiments, it is rare for a dog to be an attack factor in my dreams.

None of this has any relevance to waking life. I never held or maintained any fear of dogs and had never experienced negative encounters with dogs in my childhood. In truth, as with most of my focus on dream study for over fifty years, it is my natural connection to the dream state and awareness of its meanings that is the key factor. People do not seem to understand, since oneironautics is a main aspect of my dream experience since earliest memory in both lucid and non-lucid dreams (the latter by lifelong conditioning), that the symbolism relates to the nature of the dream state itself, not waking life, other than when prescient.

---

Afternoon of February 1, 2018. Thursday.



“A Carport as Liminal Space” also links to this entry. The only potential difference relates to my personal history in mostly living in houses with large enclosed front porches in contrast to one house, in Cubitis, with a large carport by which access to both the front yard and backyard was inherent. (In contrast, the Rose Street apartment, on the second floor of a commercial building, with businesses on the first floor, only had a minimal public entry at the foot of the stairs.)

---

“A Porch as Liminal Space” is one of my most common autosymbolic settings in the waking transition and has been as such since early childhood. A porch is autosymbolism for a specific level of unconsciousness, often rendered as the final setting in a dream when RAS mediation dominates the most. It is often triggered when my dream self, though often as a subliminal factor, wants to sustain the dream state (without viably remembering what a dream is), mainly as a RAS artefact from the otherwise lucid habit of “going outside” in childhood dreams due to it being a starting point for apex lucidity.

In many cases, I have utilized my understanding of autosymbolism in semi-lucidity to vivify my dream into astounding apex lucidity by using a porch as an “entry point”, though always in going outside (which makes the term “entry point” sound ambiguous even though it is not), and augmenting my dream into incredible clarity. This is because such autosymbolism is rendered while closer to the emergent consciousness factor (the same factor of which gives a subliminal cue to my dream self to attempt to sustain my dream). Unfortunately, it also means that RAS mediation is likely to dominate by rendering the preconscious as personified, which sometimes results in “intruder” dreams.

A porch represents liminal space regardless of which porch is rendered in my dream. Although my dream settings are always unique from dream to dream, there are cases where the porch of my present home is rendered in the last scene, though usually has a noticeable fictional aspect or different orientation (in conscious realization only, after waking). Sometimes the wrong porch is rendered with a particular previous home, or sometimes leads to a different location from where it did in real life.

As with certain other autosymbolic settings (excluding such as a bedroom or bathroom), there is no connection to waking life or the conscious self identity other than when prescience is a factor. In other words, it is inherent to the condition of being unconscious while subliminally seeking to sustain the dream state in preference to becoming conscious. This is why RAS mediation is most likely to dominate this setting in the final stage of a dream, typically by being at the entry point of the porch or becoming an intruder on the porch, as waking is a biological necessity. However, depending on biological or environmental factors, my dream self is sometimes allowed to use this setting as a dream state augmentation factor. Again, this is only utilized by going outside, as going inside would place me closer to a dream state indicator such as a bedroom or bathroom; a bedroom to remind me that my physical body is asleep and thus cannot stay as such forever and a bathroom to remind me of the eventually inescapable biological need to use a toilet.

---

A full understanding of this setting and its autosymbolic nature has brought me closer to mastering many levels of the dream state, even in non-lucidity.

---