Lucid dreaming is a practice that can take us into the realm of soul and spirit. But while we may hope for ecstatic experiences in our dreams, sometimes a different sort of scene arrives: one that tests our resolve, and leads us into dark places and emotional challenges. This is not a failure of the lucid dream, or an impurity of the dreamer. It’s the dream doing its work.
Soul and spirit
Usually, the terms soul and spirit are used interchangeably, but I like psychotherapist Bill Plotkin’s distinction: “Where soul is associated with the many earthly mysteries, spirit is associated with the one heavenly bliss. Soul opens the door to the unknown or the not-yet-known, while spirit is the realm beyond knowledge of any kind, consciousness without an object.”1
Similarly, depth psychologist James Hillman called the dream realm the underworld: the realm where we contact dark emotions and the existential truths of death and decay.
These processes of the soul have nothing to do with our connectedness to other living creatures, but rather the unique distinctiveness of the personality. It reflects our personal path through life.
This may be why those attracted to the light are so uncomfortable with dreaming. The path towards soul, towards inner nature and emotional truths, has been historically associated with evil, the pagan gods, and earthly sins.
That’s our Western heritage speaking.
It plays out still in a polite society that still actively fears the power of the feminine, the body, and our animal instincts.
Lucidity as neurognosis
Anthropologist Charles Laughlin coined the term neurognosis to describe innate knowledge we have about the world. These are internal, self-generating patterns of thought related to our brains and our bodies. Lucid dreaming is a forum for this kind of knowing due to the biological constraints on this altered state.
Lucidity reflects an ancient style of cognition
As neurognosis, lucid dream content around the world (and throughout history) showcases extreme emotions, initiation, and contact with the deceased as well as the oft-reported white light experiences and non-dual bliss.
Even if you are interested in becoming one with the light, or contacting the divine–however you conceive of it–chances are you will run into these more difficult themes as well.
Transcendence and transformation
Lucid dreaming scholar Scott Sparrow has also noted our culture’s love affair with light and oneness may come at the expense of understanding what he calls the transformational path.
Similar to Plotkin’s analysis, and with Laughlin’s neurognosis in mind, Sparrow suggests that transformation in dreams is about delving into emotions and initiation-style experiences—encounters that parallel Tantra and the almost forgotten Western culture of alchemy.
Transformation is a process of decay, of breaking down, and ultimately the growth of something new.
Sparrow writes eloquently how the pursuit of white light and non-dual experiences in lucid dreaming can actually distance us from the spirit of non-attachment. In the transformative path, he suggests, “instead of pursuing a transcendent goal, our goal becomes meaningful engagement with ourselves and the world, giving way to a flowering of a myriad of creative forms and possibilities.”
Fear is not a failure. It’s the way to deeper participation.
With courage and compassion, self-awareness brings opportunities to face those mortal fears, those dirty bodily truths, and those emotional frailities that tend to get washed over by the waking ego and its quest for positivity and bliss.
Competency in this realm is necessary for some lucid dreamers, based on individual motivations and, perhaps, personal destiny.
For myself, this was a process of facing lucid nightmares, learning how to fight and knowing when to surrender.
A dream to illustrate this underworld:
Throwing nails and throwing up
A group of boys throw nails at me. I run away. Then I approach them again and they have calmed down. I’m very uneasy. One of them directs his attention at me. We walk off together; he is volatile, angry. I’m lucid; I know I’m dreaming. I want to run but decide to stick with him. We sit on a bench and I know he hates me and thinks I am weak. I realize I don’t have to hate him back. I fight the urge to flee again. I struggle and then accept him fully in my heart. With this, I suddenly need to throw up. I do so, barfing all over myself. I see that he is sweating profusely too; his expression is that of someone who is doing hard work. I tell him I love him, and I know we just have to accept each other as we are; we don’t even have to embrace. He gets it and visibly relaxes. I wake up, invigorated, full of energy. (6/10/2008)
Like for all dreams, I measure it by its fruits: I awoke with renewed energy and courage. The transformative path of lucid dreaming is not a popular way to go, but it needs to be acknowledged if you’re serious about lucid dreaming as a path to knowledge. Descent is not a slippery slope into corruption, but an ancient way of knowing that purifies the soul.
Or the spirit, whatever. I don’t think we have to choose.
Your thoughts?
Notes
1 Plotkin, Bill. Soulcraft: crossing into the mysteries and nature and psyche. 2003: p 29.
First Image: Stairs by spaceyJessie
Thank you so much for keeping us up-to-date on the research. I find that dreams are a great way to face head on my fears and accept them. A common theme for me is running away. When I become lucid in these dreams I like to meet my pursuer and befriend them. I’ve often found that I obtain insight into my relationships with people by doing that.
I wish I were that lucky. I just feel either good or bad when I awaken and don’t usually remember what dream created the feeling. I think I’ll give it a shot though!
Hi Alexia – that’s a powerful practice, and a courageous one!
I have found that my fear is usually disproportionally scarier than the truth that wants to be expressed… it shows how much energy we spend keeping certain ideas and emotional truths from ourselves in waking life too.
I’m with you on the intensity and deep value of the path of soul, and the limitations of pursuing “light” exclusively, but perhaps the Western tradition is more inclusive than we sometimes think.
The pagan gods and goddesses, and the earth-centered traditions *are* part of the Western tradition, and the attempt of the religions of the book to cast them as evil doesn’t change that. Joseph Campbell points to that when he writes about the Grail traditions, and talks about entering the dark forest where there is no path.
That dark forest path leads to wholeness.
Thank you for your insightful, always interesting and thought-provoking Blog. “…those emotional frailties that tend to get washed over by the waking ego and its quest for positivity and bliss” …and sameness, the quest to achieve an ideal state of understanding, mental clarity and spiritual awareness, after which no more work and change are required, except of course defending what you’ve achieved from what is easily termed “our dark side”. It took me years to understand, and even more time to accept, the Light, as you refer to it, leads to yet more fascinating intricacies—to the dark, mysterious and exciting paths of creation. Watching a soccer game (my preferred method of meditation;-) I wrote this yesterday:
Wherever I am
is a new present
Whatever I become
is love’s home
Whenever change comes
I remain all-ways
Whoever contains me
I lovingly transform
Thank you again for your Blog which, as the ancient Egyptians would have put it, “Cuts Maat.” As a lucid dreamer myself, I really appreciate it.
Mary — thanks for the reminder that Western heritage does go deeper. The dream temples of Aesclepius are a good example, something I’ve been really fascinated about recently. Alchemy is another Western tradition that swims in these waters.
Maria– good to meet you, and thanks for the warm words. yeah, the work goes on… but there’s always time to rest, let it go fallow, and watch soccer. 🙂
Ryan, thank you for a very informative blog post! I am getting ready to read your free book to possibly start dreaming more. I had nightmares for years (not lucid), and then apparently blocked my memory of dreams… I hope your book will be insightful! Thank you!
thanks Natalie! tell me more about how the book goes down…
Hi Ryan,
I’m really glad you’re writing about the darker side of lucid dreaming. As I’ve mentioned before, this does worry me and has kept me away from lucid dreaming for a long time. I can definitely understand, though, how interacting with frightening or angry figures can be cleansing and empowering.
I had a dream last week where I was being choked. I couldn’t see who it was because it was dark, but the person had old, leathery hands, which made me think (in the dream) that it was my grandfather. I fought him off, but when I woke up, I wished I could have asked him why and told him never to do it again in the dream. I did creative visualization after the dream and that helped, but being able to actually do it in the dream would have been even more empowering.
Rainbow
Hey Rainbow, sorry for the delay, your comment got by me. Your visualization sounds like good medicine. Simply doing that in waking life may help you remember to do it if something like it occurs again in the dream.
Ryan, thanks for this article! Descent and interaction in the dark with things of the dark in my dreams have been very fruitful for me.
Throughout my life, I’ve occasionally dreamed of an evil presence. When I was a child, I was afraid for my survival. When I was older, I was afraid for those I loved in my dreams. Now, though, when I encounter it, it no longer frightens me, and in fact, I can tell that it is frightened of me. I feel much empathy toward it. It seems to me it served for a time as a guardian of much that I wasn’t ready to see.
The typically dark, dirty basement where I usually encountered this presence now usually is a walk-out basement with draped windows that I can open despite the presence’s resistance.
In my waking life, I feel more open, more able to be present with situations that would have felt much too overwhelming before, that would have triggered my reactivity.
Karl
that’s awesome. empathy is such a balm in the dream. I’ve found that reconciliation affirmations (gratitude work) in waking life have also had a profound effect on my descent dreams. It’s definitely work, but good work.
Thank you for such an insightful article (as usual) Ryan. Just popped in to say I had an amazing lucid dream the other night and have submitted it, and my accompanying artwork, to the IASD PsiberDreaming Art Gallery. It encompassed both light and dark and was truly awesome. It was night time and I was on a beach, the sea was dark and rough. Otherworldly figures with a golden aura formed a line (barrier) between the beach and the sea and were pulling people through from the beach and into the sea. People were frightened but I was just curious. After I’d been pulled through, I found myself in an awesome landscape, brightly lit with sunshine. The dreamscape was totally stable (unusual for me in a lucid dream). I asked the people with me if they knew they were in a lucid dream but they didn’t believe me.
On waking I had the feeling I’d crossed into a competely different state of being and felt incredibly privileged to have been there in my own Nirvana. This experience was so like the state that some religious followers (e.g. Zen Buddhists) aim to achieve in every sleep period – hence the name “little death”. I don’t have many lucid dreams but those I’ve had in the past, up until a few years ago, were often (usually) dark, sometimes scary, sometimes sexual. This was a totally different experience. Awesome.
great dream Jo! I’m looking forward to the art that this inspired. some lucid dreams are definitely more lucid than others, huh?
Thank you for this great article. I’ve been practicing lucid dreaming for the past 2-3 years and only in the last few months have I realized that, as you say, dreams aren’t meant to be all sunshine and rainbows. I’ve been reading Carl Jung recently (whose writings you seem to be quite familiar with) and have decided to use my lucid dreams as a journey towards individuation. In my last two experiences with this goal in mind, I have come across the entity known as the Shadow. Jung says that the only way to face it is with knowledge and goodwill. I have tried that, and though it’s not nearly as powerful and malevolent as it had been (for I now recognize it as a being who was present in many of my past nightmares), I am still having difficulty dealing with it. My strategy is to try to integrate it with my ego. As they say in the series Persona (inspired by the writings of Jung), ‘I am you and you are me.” This has been how I have tried to deal with it — to integrate it back into my ego. Last time I tried this it simply shut me out. It was then that I fully recognized how much a part of me it really is, because that’s how I deal with situations I do not like or am not comfortable with. Anyways, I was wondering if you were familiar with any articles on dealing with this aspect of personal unconscious when lucid dreaming that I could peruse, or if you yourself have any advice or experience in the matter.
This is an area of lucid dreaming that is not well documented. In Stephen LaBerge’s classic “Exploring the world of lucid dreaming”, the work of Paul Tholey is discussed, who was a German gestalt psychologist who often tested the limits of ego annihilation in lucid dreaming.
You may be interested in this series of articles about lucid nightmares: it discusses methods of facing fears and shadow in lucid dreams. http://dreamstudies.org/2008/10/06/lucid-nightmares-participate-in-dream-research/
I would also gently suggest that forcing a dream figure to “integrate” into the dream ego may only strengthen the walls between the two. The ego may need to dissolve, not be strengthened by eating shadow. I think you would enjoy James Hillman’s work “Dreams and the Underworld”. he doesn’t discuss lucid dreaming, but has much to teach about dynamics between ego and shadow.
I will look for through the works of Paul Tholey with eager interest, as well as the link provided. Thank you for your prompt response.
This interests me alot, mainly because I have lucid dreams all the time, and they are not that great. Mostly everytime I have a lucid dream I will be in the room im sleeping in. There will either be scary/creepy voices and noises that I think I’ll actually be hearing, and sometimes something will be touching me. Other times my body moves around in the position I’m sleeping in; I feel such a strong force and energy I literally feel like I am astrol projecting, except I can’t see myself or anything really. I just get lifted up and it feels good at first and then I start freaking myself out because it keeps on going. my body is still being lifted up and up around and around, wherever i want it to go and i feel the force. but when i have enough i force myself to wake up by shaking my head. i shake and shake my head until i wake myself up and i have to force myself to keep my eyes opened or else ill fall right back into the dream. i know this probably sounds like an amazing experience, I dont know why I think otherwise. Could be deep insecurities I have of myself.. problems i have not been able to deal with. but i feel like when i lucid dream i just get scared. however, i have had few good lucid dreams and theyre fucking amazing. so full of color and happiness and clarity i never want it to end. there was one that i still remember – it started out in an unfamiliar room (rare) and everything i was seeing was sketch-like as if it was made in colored pencil. but then i forced my arms up and i could look at my hands. i waved them and i smiled. then i started hearing these bad mantras, i dont remember the words but i started feeling scared. all of a sudden i heard this song that i somehow knew the words too and it sounded soo real. i then heard these good mantra words like “beautiful” and “nice” and when i heard them i felt vibrations of the words go through me in the same way that the song was and i felt pure bliss. i then walked up to the mirror and tried to look at myself, i couldnt see myself clearly, it was dark and sketch-like so it was hard, but i was happy where i was. i feel like i should start making dream journals because i feel like id have a lot to contribute to others and maybe ill start seeing a pattern in my dreams. idk. i hope i lucid dream tonight! 🙂