This will explain one dimension of what I am better than I could say it myself.
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I'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of living life passionately, sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something of yourself and feeling good about life. I think the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off and see ourselves as the victim of various forces. It's always our decision who we are.

I still feel that way sometimes. Like I'm looking back on my life. Like my waking life is her memories.

We have to find room in our contemporary world view for persons with all that that entails; not just bodies, but persons. And that means trying to solve the problem of freedom, finding room for choice and responsibility, and trying to understand individuality.

I don't know about you, but I'm concerned with what's happening in this world. I'm concerned with the structure. I'm concerned with the systems of control, those that control my life and those that seek to control it even more! I want freedom! That's what I want! And that's what you should want!
Resistance is not futile. We're gonna win this thing. Humankind is too good! We're not a bunch of underachievers! We're gonna stand up and we're gonna be human beings! We're gonna get fired up about the real things, the things that matter: creativity and the dynamic human spirit that refuses to submit! Well that's it! That's all I got to say! It's in your court.

The quest is to be liberated from the negative, which is really our own will to nothingness. And once having said yes to the instant, the affirmation is contagious. It bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit. To say yes to one instant is to say yes to all of existence.

The moment is not just a passing empty nothing, yet - and this is the way in which these secret passages happen - yes, it's empty with such fullness that the great moment, the great life of the universe, is pulsating in it. And each one, each object, each place, each act leaves a mark. And that story is singular. But, in fact, it's story after story.

I mean, while, technically, I'm closer to the end of my life than I've ever been, I actually feel more than ever that I have all the time in the world. When I was younger, there was a desperation, a desire for certainty, like there was an end to the path, and I had to get there.

There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life and those who suffer from an overabundance of life.

You know, they say that dreams are real only as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?

Did you ever have a job that you hated? Worked really hard at? A long, hard day at work, finally you get to go home, get in bed, close your eyes, and immediately you wake up and realize that the whole day at work had been a dream? It's bad enough that you sell your waking life for ... for minimum wage, but now they get your dreams for free.

By dreaming every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it's ever faced. Ever. So whatever you do, don't be bored. This is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting.

Exercise your human mind as fully as possible, knowing it is only an exercise. Build beautiful artifacts, solve problems, explore the secrets of the physical universe, savor the input from all the senses, feel the joy and sorrow, the laughter, the empathy, compassion and tote the emotional memory in your travel bag. I remember where I came from and how I became a human, why I hung around, and now my final departure is scheduled. This way out. Escaping velocity. Not just eternity, but infinity.

And as one realizes that one is a dream figure in another person's dream, that is self awareness.

Down through the centuries, the notion that life is wrapped in a dream has been a pervasive theme of philosophers and poets. So doesn't it make sense that death too would be wrapped in dream? That after death, your conscious life would continue in what might be called a dream body? It would be the same dream body you experience in your everyday dream life. Except that in the post-mortal state, you could never again wake up, Never again return to your physical body.

It was a gift. Life was raging all around me, and every moment was magical. I loved all the people, dealing with all the contradictory impulses. That's what I love the most -- connecting with the people. Looking back, that's all that really mattered.

Actually, there's only one instant, and it's right now, and it's eternity. And it's an instant in which God is posing a question, and that question is basically, 'Do you want to, you know, be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?' And we're all saying, 'No thank you. Not just yet.' And so time is actually just this constant saying 'No' to God's invitation.

Lovely stuff
More than that, I'd say [some] people are paying for their own dreams to be taken from them - a bit like refuse disposal?

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Back before my dreams started fading and I was actively pursuing dream work and lucid dreaming, I was reading books like The Art of Dreaming and I watched Waking Life regularly. There is so much incredible wisdom, the art style is beautiful, and just watching it seemed to inspire familiar feelings and put me in the mood to explore. Thank you for sharing.

Carl Jung is a good person to bring in in regards to dreams. He thought that dreams were trying to tell us something. He stated the following about dreams, “They do not deceive, they do not lie, they do not distort or disguise … They are invariably seeking to express something that the ego does not know and does not understand.”. Dream interpretation can be difficult as dreams communicate largely with symbiology. These symbols can often be misinterpreted or go unseen in one way or another. It is not a large stretch here to apply the same concepts to psychedelic altered states of consciousness. Much of what is happening can be misinterpreted, unseen in one way or another and it always feels like something is trying to communicate something I do not know or understand.

I have never had a lucid dream but I would imagine it would be somewhat like DMT. I imagine that waking life is also a dream and is trying to communicate something. I don't know how many times in life I was receiving communication and did not understand or was unseen in one way or another. Life is a dream within a dream. I think we can communicate back that which we understand, like a sounding boards. Bouncing the vibration of each state of consciousness back and forth. These vibration look to be in balance with each other. When we fall off course, as it were, we are reminded what the course is by our dreams or perhaps a DMT trip. For example, the bad dream or difficult DMT trip could certainly be communicating to you that your waking life is out of balance. All connected in a way that we cannot understand as it would be like trying to see your own face without a mirror.

I think we can communicate back by leading lives that lead to peaceful sleep and peaceful dreams and peaceful DMT trips while were talking about it. This communication would be something akin to "Thank you Dreams! I received your message loud and clear and am applying this gift of knowledge to the best of my ability!". I have learned a lot about myself with DMT and the dreams it has provided. I apply that knowledge and I feel it has made me a better person all around. It took me awhile of misunderstanding and not seeing something that was right in front of me. Carl Jung thought that dreams were part of what he called individuation. In other words, dreams are showing us who we are! Just an honest opinion.

If you don't mind me asking, do you smoke cannabis? I ask because I have not been dreaming lately. I have been reading a lot of reports about DMT opening up people's dreams. I have yet to experience this. When I was lucid dreaming, many years ago, I was smoking weed at the time. I have also been reading reports of weed inhibiting dreams and I am wondering if I should stop or if maybe there is something else I need to focus on.

I think you should be the one to answer that questions for yourself. If something feels off or your dreams are not coming or your not remembering them, perhaps you are ignoring or avoiding them in some way. Look for your focus where you think it should be. If you want to dream moar, practice and work on it. That's all we can do in the end is progress towards something that positive and empowering. If something is not empowering you, set it down. There is something to be said for moderation in all things. Dream in moderation.

I think it's quite common that cannabis inhibits dreaming. Definitely take a day or two off and see what happens.

Writing down dreams has made me dream more often and also pay more attention to dreams.

I have had "flashbacks" to dreams when taking DMT. I can't be sure that they are real flashbacks but certain patterns and feelings in the come up sometimes feel familiar.

I've experimented a little with calea zacatechichi also known as the Mexican dream herb. I used way too big doses at first and couldn't get deep sleep at all during the night. Half a gram ingested just before going to sleep however did make my dreams more vivid. There is one in study which says the herb is toxic to kidneys though so I've limited my experimentations with it.

THC use mostly eliminated my ability to dream, or at least did not allow me to remember my dreams. I would occasionally wake up and have a fleeting idea I had dreamed but far past the point of recall or reflection. I used thc for most of 2020 and happy to say I am about 95% off it for now.
I went a whole year without recalling a single dream. then while detoxing a few months ago with the assistance of valium and some pain medication (post surgical) I began lucid dreaming and multi layer dreaming , waking up in a dream and thinking I am awake but actually still dreaming. Talking with dead friends and examining some scary stuff and also seeing entities.
Not always fun but pretty refreshing.

There are definitely many layers to this line, I remember thinking it was kind of funny when I was younger but now I see it in several different, more serious, ways.


I too dedicated a lot of time and effort towards dreaming when I was younger. I haven't seriously worked on it for probably a decade now but I have been thinking about getting back in to it again with much more maturity. Before, I lucid dreamed recreationally, now I want to explore them spiritually and mystically. I feel that taking what I have learned from meditation, psychedelic experiences, and spirituality and trying to apply those lessons to dreams could result in some very powerful experiences. I plan on exploring both late night sitting and dream yoga to help guide me in exploring the facets of what can be gleaned from sleep and the dream world.


I recently (finally) read The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and was surprised at how it incorporated the work of Jung and the dreams of modern people to explain how people are having dreams today and they have to do with issues in development and life that myths from throughout out history have repeated and reflected upon. Dream interpretation was something I was only marginally interested in previously but after having been exposed to it at a more philosophical level I have become a lot more interested and I plan to go on to study Jung's work.


I have heard some people say that marijuana enhances their dreams, but for me I find it drastically reduces my recall, in fact, I would say the point when I started regular marijuana use coincided with the cessation of my work with dreams as I lost so much of the recall that I couldn't really continue. I think its different for each individual, and also perhaps the time of day you smoke and also perhaps how strong and how much you are smoking. I don't know any particulars if people have examined this but I wonder if different strains and chemical profiles of marijuana have different effects on dream recall - I wonder if this has been explored anywhere. I found if I 'pass out' from being high, or am super high when I go to sleep my chance at recalling anything is near zero.

I will absolutely echo what Tomtegubbe has said in that dream journaling is the #1 tool to increasing dream recall in my experience. But if you are recalling 0 then there is nothing to journal so sometimes getting that initial recall can be a hard jumping off point.

That was a brilliant introduction

Thank you for that.

Relative to dreaming and smoking, I smoke THC rather regularly (less lately) and I dream. And they're wild. But recollection is definitely not there about halfway through the day, regardless if I've smoked during the day. Everything I come across in research states that THC impacts the ability to remember dreams.

I should really write mine down...

Thank you again for a wonderful and creative introduction.

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