Comments on: Lucid Dreaming and Narby’s Cosmic Serpent

By: Steve Ludwin

Steve Ludwin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:41:52 +0000

Jeremy Narby’s book is great. I am on my second read as well. Snakes rule!

By: Dungan

Dungan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:27:31 +0000

Dannon, thanks for commenting! In my opinion, lucid dreamers in our society have to move though a lot of cultural baggage to accept the visions of their lucid dreams without repressing them and then, even harder still, be open to respecting them. So I’m not grumpy at the oneironauts, because they are helping move our culture forward! It’s our Western mythology (especially its materialist-advertising-Manifest Destiny-unsustainable capitalistic streak) that influences the present day expression of lucid dreaming.

For instance, the topic of dream control: it is one thing to understand that all is illusion (the Tibetan dream yoga philosophy here), but in the west this tends to get translated as “nothing is real, except for me, the rational ego, who is the master of this domain…. ” I’m happy to see you building these bridges between the Tibetan teachings and the West.

By: dannon

dannon — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:03:58 +0000

I find it very frustrating trying to communicate with people who claim to be oneironauts but "find a contradiction between the practical reality of their" lives "and the invisible and irrational world of" the dreamers (quoted from above). Great article. Great website. I would like to post a link to your site here on http://luciddreamyoga.blogspot.com/ and I hope you post mine here. This is a rare find.

By: Dungan

Dungan — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:28:28 +0000

great info, Gyrus. I always appreciate your depth of inquiry on this blog!

it appears that entheogenic cultures are often dreaming cultures as well. there are those that look inward (thru various means) and those that don’t (ie the rational west with its war on drugs and skepticism towards dreams).

also that’s interesting about the banisteriopsis vine, which is the component in ayahuasca that is the mao inhibitor, not the DMT-containing plant. Narby mentions that ayahuasceros really see the vine as the main ingredient too. is it the dream component?

By: Gyrus

Gyrus — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:35:32 +0000

I was intrigued to hear from a friend who undertook initiation as an ayahuasquero in Peru that the visionary experiences with the brew were only a part of the story. They placed great store by the dreams that followed intensive series of ayahuasqua sessions. Also, they worked with various other plants by following similar dietary restrictions as per ayahuasqua, but the plants aren't "psychoactive" in the strict Western sense. However, they felt that by taking these plants in combination with the diet lead to the plant spirits manifesting in dreams. There's a very interesting piece in the book Narby co-edited with Francis Huxley, Shamans Through Time, called 'An Ethnobotanist Dreams of Scientists and Shamans Collaborating'. In it, Glenn Shepard samples opatsa seri, a kind of tobacco paste mixed with Banisteriopsis vine that's used to induce dreams in Peru. Lastly, I can't leave this dreams/drugs thread without mentioning The Drugs of the Dreaming by Gianluca Toro & Benjamin Thomas: "The first comprehensive guide to oneirogens - naturally occurring substances that induce and enhance dreaming". I've not made much use of it yet, but it's a book that needed to be written!