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Do we connect in some way with friends and strangers in our dreams each night while our physical bodies sleep? What if after waking up tomorrow, you compared dreams with a friend and found out that each of you had dreamed of the other, with shared details that simple coincidence could not easily explain? In a minimal sense, a “mutual dreaming” describes a situation where two or more people have similar dreams on the same night. In 'full-fledged' mutual dreams two or more people dream of meeting one another in virtually identical dream environments (“dreamscapes’), having many unusual details in common. Validated cases of mutual dreaming have significant implications not only to the nature of dreaming and of human consciousness, but to the understanding of ‘reality’ as well. How
will this Mutual Dreaming Contest Work? The Mutual Dreaming Contest event will take place on Wednesday night-Thursday morning, September 25-26, 2002. Participants will attempt to tune into, or enter into, the
dreams of the Designated
Dreamer (D.D.),
Ed Kellogg. Ed will go to bed early, and will make a detailed record
of the dreams he has during the night, and will also fill out a Mutual
DreamKey Questionnaire for each dream. Ed will
post his dream reports on the Mutual
Dreaming Contest PsiberDreaming
Conference Discussion Board thread after 9
AM PST Friday morning, September 27, 2002. How to ‘Tune In’: While lying in bed and before going to sleep, focus your intent by repeating an affirmation to that tonight when you sleep you will have a mutual dream with the Designated Dreamer, Ed Kellogg. (You also might want to use imagery, to reinforce your affirmation, by imagining yourself meeting the D.D. in a dream, and seeing yourself happily writing down your dreams in detail in the morning.) Feel free to personalize the affirmation by using your own words, rather than using one of the versions given below as examples:
a. "Tonight I will have a mutual dream with Ed Kellogg. I will remember my dreams clearly and easily when I wake up in the morning." or b. "Tonight I will tune into Ed Kellogg’s dreams. When I awaken in the morning I will remember my dreams clearly and in detail. Writing Down Your Dreams: When you wake up in the morning, write down your dreams in detail, including pictures and diagrams if you like. If you have time, we also suggest that you fill out, or at least look over, the Mutual DreamKey Questionnaire for each of your dreams as well to see if it brings to mind additional details. In writing your dream reports, please give priority to describing the often overlooked structural level of your dreamscapes. (See ‘Objective Reality’, Mutual Dreaming, and Consensus Reality' for a fuller explanation). For example, reports should mention whether the dream occurred ‘inside’ or ‘outside’, during the daytime or nighttime (or in a brightly lit environment or a dark one), shapes, colors, etc. For example, instead of writing: “I see my Aunt Mehitabel in Israel.”, which describes very little, you might instead report: “In a sunlit, barren desert with wasteland of brown rock and scrub in Israel I see my Aunt Mehitabel, a tall, thin woman with graying hair worn in a braid and a large hooked nose. She looks about 50 and has on a blue dress.” Mutual DreamKey Questionnaire: Dream reports focusing on the labeling level make it difficult to find, and to compare, similarities on the structural level in potential mutual dreams. For example, suppose that Alice and Megan, who have never met physically, met each other in a mutual dream? Alice might write: "I dreamed I went to school with my sister Jane and we met some friends" while Megan might report "In my dream Susan and I went to the mall". Doesn’t sound like much of a match does it? But what if they discovered, on comparing more detailed dream reports, that Megan looks like ‘Jane’ in Alice’s dream, and that Alice looks like ‘Susan’ in Megan’s dream? Or that “the school” in Alice’s dream looks virtually identical to “the mall” appearing in Megan’s dream, in both cases a large block like concrete structure with an interior courtyard with a small fountain and plants? In dreams, we usually identify what we experience in terms of what seems most familiar to us. The Mutual DreamKey Questionnaire helps dreamers in focusing on, and in bringing out important details on the structural level of their dreamscapes that ordinary dream reports often ignore. Submitting your Entry: In order to qualify for a prize, you must submit your entries before 9 AM PST Friday morning, September 27, 2002. Aside from the dream report, entries may also include graphic files as attachments, that either diagram the dreamscape and/or depict the dreamscape itself. Preferred file formats for such attachments would include JPEG, or GIF files. If you have filled out a Mutual DreamKey Questionnaire please append it to your dream report. Send entries to alef1@msn.com , or post them on the Mutual Dreaming Contest Thread on the PsiberDreaming Conference Discussion Board. Judging: The judge will rate the similarity of dreams by participants with those recorded by the Designated Dreamer, and will use the information contained in the filled out Mutual Dreaming Key as a supplementary source of information. First, the judge will look for similarities on the structural level, that consists of the stage settings and props, the raw dreamscape before we project meaning onto it, the highest priority (light or dark, inside or outside, shapes, colors, etc.) Second, the judge will look for similarities on the meaning level, in which symbols, feelings, and the relationships of the dream characters and objects predominate. And third, the judge will look for similarities on the labeling level, where we verbally interpret and identify what happens during a dream.
Stanley Krippner, Fariba Bogzaron, and Andre Percia de Carvellos, *Extraordinary Dreams and How to Work With Them* (signed by Stanley Krippner) Robert Moss, *Dreaming True: How to Dream Your
Future and Change it for the Better* (First come, first served!) Second Prize: Second place winner gets to choose either of these offerings: Patricia Garfield *The Universal Dream Key* (unsigned) Anne Sayre Wiseman *Nightmare Help* (unsigned) Richard Wilkerson's History of Dreams Class (a $30 value!) (multiple copies available) Third Prize: ASD Sleep Shirt - one size fits all! And Last, But Not Least: The Psiberdreaming Triple Crown - a one year new ASD membership, or a one year renewal, to anyone who manages to earn first prize in all three PsiberDreaming Contests. Resources for those who wish to explore “Mutual Dreaming” in more depth: Short Paper: ‘Objective Reality’, Mutual Dreaming, and Consensus Reality by E. W. Kellogg III, Ph.D. Links: A link to the paper on a "Mutual Lucid Dream Event", by E. W. Kellogg III,
originally published in Dream Time,
14(2),
32-34, 1997. Details a very evidential mutual dream event, in which the
both dreamers had achieved lucidity. The two people involved had not
seen each other for over 2 years. Includes a theoretical analysis of the
phenomenological characteristics of such dreams, and of the formidable
psychological and social barriers that make evidential mutual dreams so
rare. http://www.asdreams.org/telepathy/kellogg_1997_mutual_lucid_dream_event.htm Abstract of the "Lucid
Mutual Dream Protocol" paper, by E. W. Kellogg III (presenter),
Linda Lane Magallón, and Robert G. Waggoner , given at the 1999 ASD
Conference in Santa Cruz:
http://www.asdreams.org/documents/1999_kellogg_lmdp_protocol.htm DreamFlights
- a website maintained by the author of the book Mutual Dreaming: http://members.aol.com/dreampsi/archive/mutualdreaming.html Books of Interest: Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe, Anchor Press, 1971, 1977. A fascinating narrative which describes the authors out-of-the-body (physical) experiences, a state similar to, but distinct from, the lucid dream state as usually defined. Enigma:
Psychology, the Paranormal and Self-Transformation
by James J. Donahoe, Ph.D., Bench Press, 1979. The author relates
experiences of mutual dreams, ecstatic states, OBEs, and other phenomena
recounted by himself and others. Lively and interesting but out of print
and hard to find. Mutual Dreaming: When Two or More People Share the Same Dream by Linda Lane Magallón, Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1997. A thorough look at the phenomenon of mutual dreaming, where two or more people experience similar dreams, written and researched by a dreamer who has herself participated in, and organized, a number of shared dreaming projects. APPENDIX 1 (for the Structural Level of Dreams) ©2002 E. W. Kellogg III, Ph.D. Note: this questionnaire only supplements a detailed dream report, to help reveal, or highlight, structural level details that the dream report might have left out. It works best if you fill it out with respect to a “snapshot” of the dreamscape at an important moment in the dream. After all, over the course of a dream the dreamscape environment can change radically, from daytime to nightime, from inside a building to outside in a forest, etc. You might need to complete this questionnaire several times for a single dream, to describe the structural elements of each important scene. Dream Title:_____________ Dream Scene _______________ 1. Did your dream mostly occur inside a building or structure, or outside? Inside ___ Outside __ Other __ (If it occurred outside, go to 10) Indoor Dreamscape Questions 2. What sort of lighting did the dream have? Very Bright __ Well lit ___ Dim ___ Dark __ 3. How much space did the inside of the structure have? Very small and cramped, (like a small closet) __ A small space (like a bedroom) __ A medium space ( like a living room) __ A large space (like a hotel lobby) ___ An very large space (like a ballroom or gymnasium) ___ An enormous space (like a football stadium) ___ 4. What shape did the floor of the structure have? Triangular ___ Square __ Rectangular ___ Hexagonal or Octagonal ___ Circular ___ Irregular
(please describe) ___________________ 5. How high a ceiling did the structure have? Very low (less than you height) ___ Low (about your height) __ Medium ( a few feet more than you height) ___ High (double your height) ___ Very High ___ Irregular
(please describe) ___________________ 6. What kind of walls did the structure have? Smooth and flat ___ Smooth an contoured __ Rough and flat __ Rough and contoured __ Very Rough and flat (like a stone wall) ___ Very rough and contoured (like a cave wall) __ Irregular
(please describe) ___________________ 7. What color(s) did the inside of the structure have? (Check all that apply) Walls Floor Ceiling White __ __ __ Violet __ __ __ Blue __ __ __ Green __ __ __ Yellow __ __ __ Orange __ __ __ Red __ __ __ Black __ __ __ Mixed (please describe) ___________________ 8. What sort of objects did the inside of the structure have? (check all that apply) Door-like openings __ If so, how many? __ Window-like openings __ If so, how many? __ Stair-like objects __ If so, how many? __ Table-like objects __ If so, how many? __ Chair-like objects __ If so, how many? __ Lamp-like objects __ If so, how many? __ Plant-like objects? __ If so, how many? __ Art-like objects? __ If so, how many? __ Other objects? __ Please describe _____________________________________________ 9. In your experience, how many levels (floors) did you the structure have? One __ Two __ Three __ Four __ Five to Ten __ More than Ten __ Outdoor Dreamscape Questions (if your dream occurred entirely ‘indoors’, go to question 20.) 10. Did your dream during the daytime or nighttime? Daytime ___ Nighttime __ Other __ 11. What sort of light intensity did the dreamscape have? Very Bright ___ Well lit ___ Dim ___ Dark __ 12. What sort of a view of the dreamscape did you have? Not much - a few feet __ 20 feet or so __ The length of a basketball court __ The length of a football field __ A mile or so __ I could see for miles, and miles __ 13. What sort of terrain did the dreamscape have? (check all that apply) Artificial (farm or garden) __ Small town __ Cityscape __ Desert __ Mountain __ Valley __ Tropical __ Underground __ Water (ocean or lake) __ Irregular (please describe) ___________________ 14. What sort of vegetation did the dreamscape have? (check all that apply) None __ Sparse __ Cactus __ Grass __ Flowers __ Bushes __ Trees ___ Others (please describe) ___________________ 15. What season of the year did the dreamscape most resemble? Spring ___ Summer __ Fall ___ Winter ___ Other (please describe) ___________________ 16. What sort of weather did the dreamscape have? (check all that apply) Clear and sunny __ Fog-like __ Rain-like __ Snow-like __ Other (please describe) ___________________ 17. What sort of sky did the dreamscape have? Clear and blue __ Overcast __ Blue with clouds __ Black __ Other (please describe) ___________________ 18. What color(s) did the dreamscape have? (Check all that apply) Ground Plants Sky White __ __ __ Violet __ __ __ Blue __ __ __ Green __ __ __ Yellow __ __ __ Orange __ __ __ Red __ __ __ Black __ __ __ Mixed (please describe) ___________________ 19. What sort of objects did you see in the dreamscape? (check all that apply) Plant-like __ If so, how many? __ Tree-like objects __ If so, how many? __ Rock-like objects __ If so, how many? __ Chair-like objects __ If so, how many? __ Car-like __ If so, how many? __ Street-like __ If so, how many? __ Building-like __ If so, how many? __ Art-like objects? __ If so, how many? __ Other objects? __ Please describe _____________________________________________
Questions to answer whether your dream took place ’inside’, or ‘outside’, or both. 20. What sort of dream beings or characters did you see in the dreamscape? (check all that apply) Child-sized humans __ If so, how many? __ Adult-sized humans __ If so, how many? __ Child-sized humanoids __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Adult-sized humanoids __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Child-sized monsters __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Adult-sized ‘monsters’ __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Huge ‘monsters’ __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Small-size animals __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Medium-size animals __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Large -size animals __ If so, how many? __ What kind? ______________ Beings of light __ If so, how many? __ Other beings? __ Please describe _____________________________________________ 21. Describe your general appearance. (check all that apply) Don’t know __ Child-sized human __ Adult-sized human __ Child-sized humanoid __ What kind? ______________ Adult-sized humanoid __ What kind? ______________ Child-sized ‘monster’ __ What kind? ______________ Adult-sized ‘monster’ __ What kind? ______________ Huge ‘monster’ __ What kind? ______________ Small-size animal __ What kind? ______________ Medium-size animal __ What kind? ______________ Large -size animals __ What kind? ______________ Beings of light __ Something else? __ Please describe _____________________________________________ 22. If human, or humanoid, what did you look like? (check all that apply) Don’t know __ Like my physical self __ Looking about what age? __ Sex: male __ female __ other __ Height: very short __ short __ medium __ tall __ gigantic __ Build: thin __ fat __ muscular __ Hair: long __ medium __ short __ bald __ Hair color: black __ brown __ red __ blonde __ gray __ white __ other __ Skin color: black __ brown __ red __ yellow __ pink __ white __ other __ Other unusual characteristics? (Please describe) ___________________________________ 23. What clothing did you wear? (check all that apply) Don’t know __ Nothing (au natural) __ Summer clothing __ Colors? ______________ Spring/Fall Clothing __ Colors? ______________ Winter Clothing __ Colors? ______________ Something else? __ Please describe _____________________________________________ 24. If you encountered a potential mutual dreamer, what did they look like? (check all that apply) Don’t know __ Child-sized human __ Adult-sized human __ Child-sized humanoid __ What kind? ______________ Adult-sized humanoid __ What kind? ______________ Child-sized ‘monster’ __ What kind? ______________ Adult-sized ‘monster’ __ What kind? ______________ Huge ‘monster’ __ What kind? ______________ Small-size animal __ What kind? ______________ Medium-size animal __ What kind? ______________ Large -size animals __ What kind? ______________ Beings of light __ Something else? __ Please describe _____________________________________________ 25. If human, or humanoid, what did the potential mutual dreamer look like? (check all that apply) Don’t know __ Like my physical self __ Looking about what age? __ Sex: male __ female __ other __ Height: very short __ short __ medium __ tall __ gigantic __ Build: thin __ fat __ muscular __ Hair: long __ medium __ short __ bald __ Hair color: black __ brown __ red __ blonde __ gray __ white __ other __ Skin color: black __ brown __ red __ yellow __ pink __ white __ other __ Other unusual characteristics? (Please describe) ___________________________________ 26. What clothing did the potential mutual dreamer wear? (check all that apply) Don’t know __ Nothing (au natural) __ Summer clothing __ Colors? ______________ Spring/Fall Clothing __ Colors? ______________ Winter Clothing __ Colors? ______________ Something else? __ Please describe _____________________________________________ ‘Objective Reality’, Mutual Dreaming, and Consensus Reality © 2002 E. W. Kellogg III, Ph.D. "If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awoke - Ay! - and what then?" Samuel Taylor Coleridge In our culture, most people see dreams as just a subjective fantasy, a personal experience with no real meaning that has no relation to "objective reality". Hence the phrase "just a dream", meaning an experience that has little or no importance or relevance to the "real" world. However, people in different cultures will make different judgments about the nature of dreams. For example: 1. 'dream' = 'the purely subjective projections of one's sleeping brain'; or 2. 'dream' = 'an independently existing spirit world'; or 3. 'dream' = 'a parapsychological realm with both subjective and objective elements'; 4., 5., etc. Once made, the judgment usually becomes covert and unquestioned. Some western researchers believe that an unquestioning acceptance of the currently popular neurophysiological theory of dreaming, as summarized in statement #1, constitutes “the truth”. However, for many experienced dreamworkers, this judgment appears both limiting and naive. Rather than simply replacing one set of unexamined beliefs with another, from a phenomenological viewpoint true understanding requires that we give priority to the territory of experience. This means that we revise our maps to fit our territories, instead of distorting our perceptions to fit our preconceptions. What distinguishes 'waking physical reality' from 'dream reality'? What makes one 'objective' and one 'subjective'? Consensus. However, although we share and confirm our waking experiences with each other ("How much did it snow at your house? I got over a foot."), in our culture we very rarely share and compare our dream experiences with each other. And on the few occasions that most people remember their dreams, they usually don't consider them worth sharing. After all, why should they? They "are only dreams" after all. But what if the dream world did not seem quite so subjective and solipsistic? What if we can somehow meet our friends and relatives while our physical bodies slept? What if when you wake up tomorrow and compared dreams with a friend, you find that you both dreamed of each other, and in the same dream place? What then? Then you would have experienced a shared, or mutual dream, and you might begin to question whether dreaming really does seem such a "fine and private place" after all. Well, dream reality can have a consensual nature, just like waking physical reality, as evidenced by the occurrence of mutual dreams, where two physical reality based individuals appear to have experienced the same dreamscape with each other, at the same time. This can even happen in lucid dreams, where you also feel fully alert and aware in the dream, and can make better critical judgments than in ordinary dreaming. For example, I had the following dream in late 1994:
"In a sort of archeological dig - in Mexico(?) - I see people digging for gold, peasants, in a sandy Sonoran type desert ... I go with the group - I realize that I dream, but don't know if they realize it - a sort of virtual reality field trip, I talk with the leaders and they respond. I see [Harvey G.], and tell him to give me a collect call on waking up to physical reality if he recalls this dream, and to let me know if he really does participate in a physical reality tour at this time..." In this dream I remained open to the possibility that [Harvey] might exist in an consensual sense comparable to physical reality. I therefore gave Harvey a long distance call to check for confirmation, (after waiting a bit to see if he would call me collect as I had instructed [Harvey] in the dream). Our dreams had a number of congruencies, including the archeological dig, the desert landscape, both of us present and lucid, both of us seeing this event as a sort of rehearsal for physical reality. This mutual dream appears even more evidential when you consider the following facts: 1. We only dream of each other once or twice a year; and 2. We had not communicated with each other for over two years. Unfortunately, reports of verifiable mutual dreams happen rarely, perhaps due mainly to the following reasons: 1. Most people in our culture do not take dream events seriously, usually considering them not important enough to talk about. 2. Very few people share their dreams even when they remember them, especially with those they dreamed about, for fear of ridicule or embarrassment. 3. Most people either don't remember their dreams or remember them very poorly - such as recalling only a fragment of the last dream of the night, out of 5 or 6 dreams. 4. Even if two people do have a mutual dream, prejudice will more than likely relegate this mutual dream to a curiosity, soon forgotten or only seen as an amusing coincidence. 5. The evidential quality of most spontaneous mutual dreams seems very low, due to the possibility of uncontrolled contamination of the dream accounts through informal dream sharing or day residue. 6. Lack of recognition of dream selves with their physical counterparts because the appearance of the dream self may differ markedly from the appearance of the physical self. 7. Misidentifications of people in dreams due to the "substitution phenomenon". A mutual dream falls into the category of paranormal phenomena, and as such must break through the incredibly powerful forces of our consensus trance before we can even notice them, let alone seriously consider its implications. For those unfamiliar with these terms, let me define them: para·normal [para- (beyond) + normal] : phenomena existing outside the limits of the consensus trance through which humans perceive the world: OCCULT, ODD, PECULIAR, RARE, STRANGE, SUPERHUMAN, SUPERNATURAL, UNCANNY, WEIRD phenomena :an experienced fact or event, subjective or objective consensus trance : 1: deep hypnotic conditioning imposed on humans by society from birth, which allows them to perceive only a small fraction of their potential experience, and forces them to ignore the rest 2: The presently accepted cultural and scientific worldview Aside from mutual dreams, other experiences also appear to confirm the potentially consensus nature of dream reality. Elsewhere I’ve reported on the apparent physical healing of other individuals following my healing of that individuals counterpart in a lucid dream. For example: "I try to fly to D., end up in a cloud, visualize their house and boom, end up on their front porch. They look much younger in DR, D. in his forties and G. in her thirties. ... Inside I try a healing of D. (who has severe emphysema, probably complicated by an infection). D. keeps interrupting, asking me what I do. I tell him I'll explain later in waking physical reality. I use a healing chant . A green energy-liquid, like dark chlorophyll comes out of my fingers into D's chest, where it seeps out again. ... I create a white light chi energy ball with rotating hand motions and charge him up." Within a day or so following this lucid dream healing, D showed a remarkable improvement - so much so that he reduced his oxygen consumption by over two-thirds from what he had required for the previous year. He maintained this improved state for over five years. A remarkable coincidence, to say the least. I invite you to explore the nature of dream reality on your own. But please, take warning. You will almost certainly find more than you expect.
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