Evolver Spores: The Mystery of Dreams

Evolver Spores: The Mystery of Dreams

Wed, April 18

Each night as we drift off to sleep, we enter into one of life’s oldest and most profound mysteries: the world of dreams. Cultures throughout history have been mesmerized by this ethereal state of consciousness, from the Dreamtime stories of Australia’s Aborigines to the symbolic psychologies of Freud and Jung. The alternate realms of our visionary slumbers present a puzzling paradox, calling into question the true nature of reality.  Though much research has been done into the subject, the age-old question of why we dream remains as elusive as ever.

This month, the Evolver Social Movement (E+SM) will pull back the covers from this mystifying phenomenon. Local Spores may choose to compare indigenous beliefs with recent scientific studies, learn techniques from dream yoga to lucid dreaming, or explore the power of creative visualization and manifestation.

To find your Spore, or start your own, click on the link below:

AUSTRALIA: Nimbin, Sydney
CANADA: Calgary, Toronto , Vancouver
EUROPE: Budapest, London, Vienna, Yorkshire
USA: Asheville, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham,AL, Bloomington, Boston, Boulder, Buffalo, Chicago, Columbia, MO, Columbus, Denver, Indianapolis,Everett, Iowa City, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Mount Pleasant, Murfreesburo, Naples, FL, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland/East Bay, Omaha, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, OR, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Tacoma, Washington,DC, Wilkes-Barre
image "Peace" by Alyssa L Miller via Flickr curosity of Creative Commons. 
 http://www.realitysandwich.com/

“Living The Dream”

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”

- How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later, Philip K. Dick

Part 2, Essays for the Discordian occultist: inducing a magickal state of consciousness

Magick is a highly subjective skill. According to the occultist, Ramsey Dukes, as a discipline it lies somewhere alongside ‘art’, ‘science’ and ‘religion’ [1]. All of these pursuits require a certain state of mind. The magick user who entirely excludes the possibility of magick from his worldview is like a cleric who knows no God, an artist with no appreciation for art or a scientist who refuses to accept the laws of mathematics. It’s not necessarily the case that you will be unsuccessful but it’s significantly less likely. So, for as long as is comfortable[2], it’s time to allow magick to be part of your reality.
This essay includes two exercises, the first will involve noticing magick and the second will involve using it. The first exercise is outlined below in three easy steps:

Step one: Resolve to notice the number 23.
The particular number is not relevant at this stage. Some observe the number 11 or 13 or 7 but as we’re Discordians the number 23 will tune us into the right state of mind for this series of thought exercises. People who are inexperienced in the ways of numerology are advised to watch Eric Cartmen’s explanation of the causes of 9/11 [Mystery of the Urinal Deuce (Season 10, Episode 9)]. A good numerologist can easily spot the 23’s in the numbers 203, 2003, or, at a push, 5.
Step two: Get your dream diary and record what 23 means to you each time you see it.
This diary will now be re-named a “spellbook”. Spells can take years to manifest and there’s no way of checking your effectiveness if you can’t remember which ones you have cast.
Step three: Learn not to freak out too much when the number 23 does actually seem to take on some sort of significance.
I suggest you apply maximum fluidity to the meanings you start to notice here. The number 23 doesn’t usually acquire one meaning and the more you pay attention the more you should realise it’s neither always lucky or unlucky. All we are noticing is it carries a certain significance.
Step four: Toward the end of the week (usually by the fifth day) you’ll be able to explore a world where other random details can also be viewed as significant.

In his occult masterpiece “The Secret History of The World” Jonathan Black nails a description of the sort of mindset we’re trying to invoke here:

“In this history the universe is anthropocentric, every single particle of it straining, directed towards humankind. […In] the mind-before-matter universe that this book describes, the connection between mind and matter is much more intimate. It is a living, dynamic connection. Everything in this universe is alive and conscious to some degree, responding sensitively and intelligently to our deepest, subtlest needs.”
[my italics]
The Secret History of The World, Jonathan Black. P33-34

While dreaming one’s thoughts manifest almost instantly and if you’re lucid at the time this process is easily observed. Now you have entered a more magickal state of mind we’re going to see how long it takes to replicate this process in waking life. This next exercise is similar to one suggested by Pope Bob in the first chapter of “Prometheus Rising”[3]. The only difference is we’re adjusting things slightly to account for inflation and we are not searching for any explanation other than a magickal one. Once again it is a three step process:

Step one: Resolve to evoke a nice shiny fifty cent piece.
Step two: Keep an eye out for the fruits of your evocation.
Step three: Learn not to freak out when you finally do find it. It will be found by you easily and the moment you’ve got it in your hand you will be ready for part three of this five part series where we will finally get cracking on some real high grade Discordian nonsense.
Step four: Wonder why it is that each of these three step plans has had a fourth step?

23

Footnotes:
[1]
His essay on this topic is excellent but far beyond the realms of this short practical guide for today’s busy Discordian occultist. The serious student will return to these essays once they’ve achieved incredible results with the techniques outlined in Chapters #3 and #4. These initiates will of course want to purchase a copy of all the books outlined in the further reading sections.
[2]
Occultism’s not for everyone. If you feel out of your depth at any point it’s important for the uninitiated wanderer to remember that Discordianism is of course a joke.
[3]
Pope Bob is to Discordianism what St Paul was to Christianity. His work “Prometheus Rising” was included in part one’s further reading section. International readers (anyone outside ‘the land of the free and home of the brave’) will have to work out what sort of coin suits their circumstances. The local currency tends to be more practical so something equivalent in the UK, for example, would be a 5p.
FURTHER READING:
The Secret History Of The World by Jonathan Black
SSOTBME Revised – an essay on magic by Ramsey Dukes
And of course the always essential Disinfo comments section…
Note to commenters – I intend to use your words in a little podcast I’m making, if you don’t mind? This article is to be featured (with your improvements) in a later episode of: http://thecultofnick.libsyn.com/
 http://www.disinfo.com/

“Life is But a Dream”

“As sunlight obscures the stars by day so too does wakefullness blind us to the fact that we are still dreaming.”
- Liber Kaos, Peter J Carroll.

Part 1, Essays for the Discordian occultist: introducing the lucid dream.

Everything you experience of the outside world has to pass via your senses into your brain. Your body acts as an instrument through which reality is filtered. Ignorance allows you to focus. You always exclude more than you are taking in. If this article has your full attention it will necessarily be at the expense of other things.  If you’re reading it on your mobile in a pub some people will see your focus as ignorant, for example.
It is with your memory and imagination that you decode meaning from the chaos of the external world. You’ve been around in some form or other since the dawn of time. In my experience it’s only recently that any of it has made any sort of “sense” thanks in the main to my memory and imagination.
However, that “sense” and meaning is ultimately decided by you. You get the final call as regards what is or is not “real”. This is the case with everything you have ever experienced.
Sleep is a good expression of this truth. While enveloped in sleep the brain invents scenarios by ignoring most sense data. This act of invention is usually a result of your subconscious mind combining memories and imagination. This video posted on Disinfo recently about lucid dreaming allows you to investigate the dream state further by learning to use your conscious mind to create dreams. There’s plenty of information online elsewhere about the process but a simple three step guide for the busy Discordian would run something like this:

Step one: Resolve to perform frequent ‘reality checks’.
Reality checking techniques vary from person to person but I find pulling my hands up into my line of vision is enough. This is tricky for me to do while dreaming as they usually appear a little slow moving or blurred. Other people switch electric lights off and on or try reading words, in short perform any simple activity you find is usually difficult in a dream.
Do these checks every hour or so until it’s an instinctive habit. The point of them is to trigger the realisation that you are dreaming.
Step two: Keep a dream diary and fill it in every morning.
This principally aids your memory and ability to recall any dreams from the previous night. No point in lucid dreaming if you forget about it the next day.
Step three: Learn not to freak out when you do finally feel lucid within the dream state.
I fell into the trap of waking up each time I realised I was dreaming for a while. This was mainly because I’d get so excited when a reality check revealed I was dreaming that I’d also trigger a ‘fully conscious wake up in the middle of the night situation’.
Step four: Explore the world of lucid dreaming where anything you think is true becomes the case instantly.

Magick is the art of manipulating reality both internally and externally. Lucid dreaming is an interesting preparatory first step. Further magickal exercises will build upon principles you’ll discover as your mind becomes more able to consciously manipulate the dream state. Most so-called low magick is principally concerned with projecting dreams outward into our external reality. There’s little point in doing this if you can’t dream properly.
The phrase “living the dream” owes more than a little to magickal thinking. However, our aim is to live this dream we call reality in a fully conscious ‘awakened’ state.
FURTHER READING:
Robert Anton Wilson: Prometheus Rising
Peter J Carrol: Liber Kaos
And of course this article’s invaluable comments section…
Note to commenters – I intend to use your words in a little podcast I’m making, if you don’t mind? This article is to be featured (with your improvements) in a later episode of http://thecultofnick.libsyn.com/
 http://www.disinfo.com/

Dreams Without Nightmares, Hygeine for Our Souls

Previous articles in this series, “Life is but a dream” and “Living The Dream,” have deliberately avoided too much theory and focused instead on practice. One of the reasons we started in Part 1 with lucid dreaming is because it acts as a safe environment for your early magick use[1] while teaching you most of the essentials in a fairly short period of time. For example, in that particular state you will have noticed the slightest negative thought manifests instantly. Furthermore, if you set out to have a nightmare it’s not hard to make yourself wake up screaming. However, few people do this because dealing with such situations usually comes instinctively. After all in that world you are an all powerful great magician who can make even the grass go green.
Now your experiments are moving into the external world where you will have spent years learning how limited your power is. The key point here is that everything you’ve ever encountered has had to come through your own reality filter, otherwise known as your mind[2]. Everything you know about the outside world has had to pass through the bowels of your brain.
During these exercises lets agree for the moment that you cannot order the chaotic external world and focus instead upon the only thing you can control, your mind. Think of the techniques below as safety precautions which have been shown by others to help keep that vital instrument clean and healthy.

1, Cultivate a level of “mindfulness” with daily meditation

Meditation is a good start. I use the techniques taught by Alan Watts[3] as a matter of personal preference. Meditate frequently as part of a daily routine and you may glimpse a sense of what Buddhists call mindfulness. This encompasses a feeling that judging events and circumstances is futile. It’s an excellent way to avoid nightmares as fear requires you to make a judgement. Resources on how to meditate are available elsewhere online and there are many variations on this. In a nutshell here is the three step process I use daily:

Step one: Frame it as an activity which you are doing in the spirit of play, it’s not a solemn duty or task. It’s in essence meant to be fun.
Step two: Find a comfortable place and time where you will not be disturbed. You’re about to ignore the outside world and sit in it without interaction, this will be easier if you’re free of distractions. Set aside around 30-60 minutes. Follow whichever specific procedure appeals to you most but personally speaking I was first drawn in by the simplicity of an exercise called “the mindfulness of breathing”. Here you close your eyes and count, in repeating cycles of ten, the natural flow of your breath.
Step three: Learn not to freak out too much when life gets in the way or when you have an unexpected moment of success.
Step four: !

2, Adopt a temporary moral code.

Try using the beliefs of a “moral” spiritual system for a while and see how it suits you. Magick is a highly subjective skill so which set of scruples you choose to use is entirely up to you. Any theology which has a moral system that appeals will do but personally speaking my favourite option is contained within a short New Age masterpiece called “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz.[4] It takes an afternoon to read and carries less baggage than any of the more serious religious options. Give it a go in the same week you spend meditating and notice how your reality starts to shift into an easier place.
Here is the three step process, contained in more detail within, The Four Agreements:

Step one: “Be impeccable with your word”.
If you say you’ll do something ensure you actually do it. Avoid lying to people and think of it as a weapon not unlike poison.
Step two: “Don’t take anything personally”.
No one really knows you or why you’re doing what you will. If they say or do good or bad things it speaks only of their own character. This is also true of your own judgements. Say nice but truthful things about people and you’re exercising positive internal energy. Keep bitching about people and you’ll emphasise the bad in yourself.
Step three: “Don’t make assumptions”.
Discover the world with your own mind, don’t be led by others. Trust yourself and investigate the reality you personally inhabit. We all live in different worlds and it’s far better to gaze in wonder than become one of those dull characters who assume they know it all.
Step four: “Always do your best”.

Hopefully the above brief description has enticed you to go look at that book. Get it from a library or buy it or whatever, don’t just use my incomplete description of it. However, as with all these essays I am suggesting tools not rules. It’s perfectly acceptable to try Christianity, Islam, Satanism, Judaism, or any of the other deeply moral spiritual systems available in today’s theological supermarket. You’re only doing it for a bit though so don’t go telling everyone, they might get upset if you decide to give their BS[5] a miss later on.

3, Learn not to freak out

The advantage of your path is that Discordianism is a joke religion. Laughter is the music from which our universe is created. In the words of G.K. Chesterton, “the angels can fly because they take themselves lightly”. The moment you forget this you might fall into the trap of taking things seriously. So, here’s a quick three step guide to some of the things you need to know before going any further:

Step 1: There is in fact no such thing as magick.
Step 2: Maybe you should stop using the word “is”.
Step 3: A good Discordian never believes anything they can read.
Step 4: As a “High” initiate there is obviously nothing I can ever actually let you know about Discordianism.

4, Cultivate a sense of your true will.

All systems of magick are pretty hot on the notion of free will. Even the control-freak Gods of the the Abrahamic religions recognise in their more sober moments that you must respect other people’s right to self determination. They don’t do this because they’re ‘nice’ Gods, they do it because the consequences for a magick user who tries to control another are not beneficial in the long term. There’s a deep misunderstanding in some forms of modern occultism that bending others to your will is a worthwhile exercise, in my experience it’s not. In fact it locks you into a situation where you will ultimately depend upon them rather than yourself.
A good occultist entices people to co-operate rather than forces them to do so. However, not pushing other people around is the easy part, working out if you’re being true to yourself is far more problematic.
Getting to know thyself is a lifelong task as you are changing all the time. This essay could be a first step towards you really considering that journey of self discovery or, more likely, it’s just a timely reminder.
At a guess your body will likely currently be full of drugs, toxins and ideas that do not really belong there. Is it your true will to drink more beer or are you in fact under the influence of alcohol and by extension the will of the company who sells it? Did you really want that bar of chocolate or did the idea get seeded in your subconscious mind by a clever advertisment?[6]
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not suggesting you need to stop the drink or drugs I’m just pointing out if you’re going to use them make sure they don’t end up using you. Do these things mindfully or they cloud your judgement when it comes to discerning your “true will”. We’re Discordians, not monks. We live our lives but before you use the techniques of magick it’s worth you ensure it’s your drerams you are living and not someone else’s.
If you follow all of the above stages any problems you face will be more easily placed into perspective. Without wishing to lift the magick curtain too much next week you’re about to do nothing more than try an instense experiment in applied philosophy. Unlike Thelemites or other occultists you’ve always got the comfortable back door provided by the fact that Discordianism is a joke, it’s nothing more than a chance to play around with funny ideas.
FURTHER READING:
The first four books in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
The British television show Spaced about a couple who live at number 23.
The Illuminatus trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Bob Shea.
And of course the always essential comments section where I invite anyone following this series to also report upon their experiences if possible…
Footnotes:
[1] Or maybe not! These essays were written in a while ago in a slightly different form and a recent Disinfo article suggests lucid dreaming might not be as safe as I (and everyone else I know who has tried it) suspected. If your lucid dreaming was a tortured experience please remember my earlier footnote “occultism is not for everyone”. Better to discover that it’s not your thing while comfortably asleep in bed, now go back to “real life” and perhaps try these exercises again in a later life.
[2]Or more commonly Discordians use Leary’s phrase: “reality tunnel“.
[3] Although he was a good writer Alan Watts was a great speaker, look for his stuff on YouTube.
[4] I describe this book as “New Age” because it is in fact known by some as a survival guide for the oncoming “Age Of Aquarius”. Such concepts are way beyond this essay but it’s worth keeping in mind when your interest in these matters grows and you end up in some hippy shop talking bollocks about crystals.
[5] BS – belief system.
[6] Thelemic literature goes into further detail on this topic and the writer Rodney Orpheus is a good start.
 http://www.disinfo.com/