Table Of ContentOther books by Arnold Mindell
Quantum Mind: The Edge between Physics and Psychology
Sitting in the Fire: Large Group Transformation Using Conflict and Diversity
The Shaman's Body: A New) Shamanism for Transforming Health,
Relationships, and Community The Leader as Martial Artist: An Introduction
to Deep Democracy The Year I: Global Process Work with Planetary
Tensions
Inner Dreambodywork: Working on Yourself Alone
Riding the Horse Backwards: Process Work in Theory and Practice Coma, Key
to Awakening: Working with the Dreambody near Death City Shadows:
Psychological Interventions in Psychiatry
The Dreambody in Relationships
River's Way, The Process Science of the Dreambody
Working with the Dreaming Body
Dreambody: The Body's Role in Revealing the Self
The Dreammaker's Apprentice: Using Heightened Awareness to Interpret the
Waking Dream of Life The Deep Democracy of Open Forums: Practical
Steps to Conflict Prevention and Resolution for the Family, Workplace, and
World Quantum Mind and Healing: How to Listen and Respond to Your
Body's Symptoms
Dreaming
While Awake:
Techniques for 24-Hour
Lucid Dreaming
Arnold Mindell, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2000
by Arnold Mindell All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever,
without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.
Cover design by Grace Pedalino
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-68253
ISBN 1-57174-359-6
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Printed on acid-free paper in the United States
Dreaming is the Mystical Source of Reality
Contents
Foreword and Acknowledgments
I. Not-Working on Yourself
1. 24-Hour Lucid Dreaming
Dreaming, Mysticism, and Physics
2. Lucidity and Dreamwork
Dissociation, Pristine Consciousness, and Lucidity Training
3. Enlightenment, East and West
Multicultural Understanding of Enlightenment
4. Deep Purple Buddhism
The Teaching of the Abhidhamma and the Common Cold
5. Not-Working on Yourself
Different Realities, Examples of Sentient Healing
6. Reflection, Flirting, and Beeping
Beeping Diagrams, Psychology and Physics
7. Theory and Practice of Divination
Psychology, Advanced Physics, and Divination
II. Lucid Healing
8. Time Travel
Reincarnation and Stepping Out of Time
9. Lucid Healing, Preventive Medicine
The Nonlocal Origin of Body Symptoms
10. Touch and Entanglement
Nonlocality between the “Healer” and the “Problem”
11. Addictions and Relationships
Changing the Atmosphere That Creates Addictions
12. Unbroken Wholeness in Relationships
We Are Very, Very Different and Also the Same
13. Dreaming As World Work
Lucidity and Consciousness in Large Groups
III. Lucid Living
14. Love Story, the Double
The Big You, the Double, and the Little You
15. Panacea for the Tragedy of Being a Person
The Meaning and Timing of Consciousness
16. Diamond Center of the Mandala
The Ancient Spiritual Practice of Becoming a Diamond
17. Reality as a Magic Symbol
The Political Incorrectness of Dreaming
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Foreword and
Acknowledgments
This book appears in its present form because of my friends. I am indebted to
Uncle Lewis (Lewis Obrien) for awakening me to the concept of the Dreaming.
Dear reader, please note, my use of the term “Dreaming” is based on my own
work as a therapist and is not meant to explain or pretend to understand the deep
and mysterious meaning of “Dreaming” as it is used in the various Australian
Aboriginal traditions. My references to “Dreaming” in connection with those
traditions are intended to honor and give credit to the significance of those who
know and once knew Dreaming as the basis of life. (A percentage of the
royalties from this book are donated directly to Australian Aboriginal sources.)
I am grateful to the Process Work Centers of Portland, Oregon; Zurich,
Switzerland; London, England; Tokyo, Japan; and Brisbane, Australia for
supporting the research and educational procedures found in this book.
I am thankful to Lily Vassiliou of Athens for transcribing the original lectures
from which this manuscript has arisen. Leslie Heizer gave wonderful structural
advice and was kind enough to help clean up the final copy. Julie Diamond, Jan
Dworkin, Sara Halprin, Lee Jones, Herb Long, Dawn Menken, Max Schupbach
and Jytte Vickelsoe were very helpful with the first drafts. Thanks to Nova
Development Corporation for permission to use their clipart images.
Jim Chamberlin and Pearl and Carl Mindell awakened me to the connections
between this book and the foundations of Eastern and Buddhist thinking, but
they are not responsible for my misunderstandings of that ancient subject. What
a surprise it was for me to discover that my explorations of physics and
psychology had expanded some of the ancient Buddhist themes! I am also
indebted to John and Gladys Johnson, who pointed me in the direction Mbiti's
African concepts of time, supporting my interpretation of time in physics and
experiments in stepping out of time.
Amy Mindell, my friend and partner in all matters, debated, clarified, and co-
taught every idea of this book with me. This could easily be called her book as
well.
I. Not-Working on Yourself
ONE
24-Hour Lucid Dreaming
It was a hot, dry morning in Adelaide, Australia, as Amy and I walked quickly
along the river near the university to a conflict resolution meeting we were about
to facilitate. We were nervous about that meeting, hoping the Aboriginal people
would successfully regain the rights to their land, which had been taken from
them by the government.
Uncle Lewis Obrien, an Aboriginal elder with whom we were walking, gently
put his hand on my shoulder and quietly said, “Arny, look over there, in the
direction of the center of the city. What do you see?” I told him that I saw
Victoria Square, the noisy bustling business center of the city. Hundreds of
people were shopping; cars honked and buses moved slowly through the traffic.
“Looks like a busy city,” I said.
Uncle Lewis suggested that I take another look. When I looked again, all I
saw was the same noisy city. “Well, your sight is good, but you don't see the
Dreaming. White fellas don't see the Dreaming. But they sense it anyhow. White
fellas built the center of the city there. We Aboriginal people used to camp
where the center is now; that's where the Dreaming is strongest. Victoria Square
is a wonderful place; that's why the modern business center works so well over
there.”1
My environmental consciousness was shocked and enlightened. I realized how
my view of the city was filtered through the lens of my U.S. background and
education. Until meeting this elder, given the choice, I tended to avoid cities,
preferring the countryside. Uncle Lewis made me realize that the miracle of
nature I was looking for in the countryside was right in front of me, in the midst
of the bustling city. The Dreaming is always present, like an aura shimmering
around the objects and events you call everyday life.
Some Aboriginal peoples describe the Dreaming in terms of the dark side of
the moon. When the moon is not quite full, you see its bright, illuminated side.
You might call it a half moon. But if you look closely on a clear evening, you
can see the dark side, silently shimmering next to the more apparent bright side.
Like me, most people focus only the bright side and miss the moon's dark face,
that is, the Dreaming reality.
The bright side is only that portion of the whole moon that is illuminated.
Focusing only on the bright side of the moon and ignoring the dark side might
easily make you think that the dark side does not exist, while in fact we need the
