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En Garde, whole no. 4, Winter 1942
Page 2
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page 2. BEYOND THE PORTAL A friend of mine has confessed upon several occasions that within five or ten minutes of going to bed at night, he is sound asleep, and a complete hiatus of his consciousness follows, to be broken only by his awakening in the morning. The word "confessed" is used deliberately. At first consideration, such sound and undisturbed sleep would seem something to be sought diligently. To me it is otherwise, and its admission seems the confession of a lack or incompleteness somewhere in one's being. How frequently it has been deplored that man is doomed to waste one third of his life in slumber! But -- must that portion of life be WASTED? Nightly, upon retiring, we face a mysterious portal. Beyond the world of Sleep, the realm of Dreams. Awaiting us as we cross the threshold is a land of thrilling romance, wondrous achievement, high adventure. Who among us could fail to enjoy such fascinating interludes in the humdrum of daily existence? Yet it appears there are many who seldom or never experience this pleasure. Science informs us that all humans dream. It suggests that those who claim otherwise merely suffer an inability to remember, upon awakening, the events of a dream. It tells us that dreams are an activity of the subconscious mind, giving expression in often distorted fashion to our fears and inhibitions. Or, perhaps, the dream is only a rehash of some past experience that made a deep impression upon us. In any event, I fail to entirely agree. While such may be true in many cases, Science itself admits to the incompleteness of its knowledge of the subject. During childhood, I experienced most of the usual types of dreams: repetitive dreams, dreams of levitation, of frustration, of embarassment. I have often experienced death in my dreams from a variety of causes too numerous to mention. Such dreams are all too common. It was at the age of seventeen or eighteen that I first noticed an occasional realization of the fact that I was dreaming, even while still doing so. I also discovered that it was sometimes possible to awaken from a dream, then go back to sleep and take up the dream where I left off. My curiosity was aroused. As time went on I experimented with these possibilities in a fumbling sort of way. Still, despite the fumbling, a facility for this sort of thing was slowly acquired. The consciousness of the fact that I was dreaming became more and more frequent, and eventually almost invariable. In step with this grew the ability to deliberately awaken from a dream, usually when it had taken an unpleasant turn, and upon returning to sleep, to resume the dream, starting it off in a more pleasant direction. Parallel to all this, but eventually contributing to what dream-mastery has been achieved, was an ability to visualize. As with so many others, I found no better time to think about whatever intrigued me most at the moment, than that immediately preceding sleep. This time of relaxation and minimum distraction was very favorable to any attempt at prolonged visualization. In time it became possible to form a mental picture, walk around
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page 2. BEYOND THE PORTAL A friend of mine has confessed upon several occasions that within five or ten minutes of going to bed at night, he is sound asleep, and a complete hiatus of his consciousness follows, to be broken only by his awakening in the morning. The word "confessed" is used deliberately. At first consideration, such sound and undisturbed sleep would seem something to be sought diligently. To me it is otherwise, and its admission seems the confession of a lack or incompleteness somewhere in one's being. How frequently it has been deplored that man is doomed to waste one third of his life in slumber! But -- must that portion of life be WASTED? Nightly, upon retiring, we face a mysterious portal. Beyond the world of Sleep, the realm of Dreams. Awaiting us as we cross the threshold is a land of thrilling romance, wondrous achievement, high adventure. Who among us could fail to enjoy such fascinating interludes in the humdrum of daily existence? Yet it appears there are many who seldom or never experience this pleasure. Science informs us that all humans dream. It suggests that those who claim otherwise merely suffer an inability to remember, upon awakening, the events of a dream. It tells us that dreams are an activity of the subconscious mind, giving expression in often distorted fashion to our fears and inhibitions. Or, perhaps, the dream is only a rehash of some past experience that made a deep impression upon us. In any event, I fail to entirely agree. While such may be true in many cases, Science itself admits to the incompleteness of its knowledge of the subject. During childhood, I experienced most of the usual types of dreams: repetitive dreams, dreams of levitation, of frustration, of embarassment. I have often experienced death in my dreams from a variety of causes too numerous to mention. Such dreams are all too common. It was at the age of seventeen or eighteen that I first noticed an occasional realization of the fact that I was dreaming, even while still doing so. I also discovered that it was sometimes possible to awaken from a dream, then go back to sleep and take up the dream where I left off. My curiosity was aroused. As time went on I experimented with these possibilities in a fumbling sort of way. Still, despite the fumbling, a facility for this sort of thing was slowly acquired. The consciousness of the fact that I was dreaming became more and more frequent, and eventually almost invariable. In step with this grew the ability to deliberately awaken from a dream, usually when it had taken an unpleasant turn, and upon returning to sleep, to resume the dream, starting it off in a more pleasant direction. Parallel to all this, but eventually contributing to what dream-mastery has been achieved, was an ability to visualize. As with so many others, I found no better time to think about whatever intrigued me most at the moment, than that immediately preceding sleep. This time of relaxation and minimum distraction was very favorable to any attempt at prolonged visualization. In time it became possible to form a mental picture, walk around
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