firstly. a word or few of introduction. this post has been designed for groups of people working together on the project. of course, ld4all is a great place, so it seems like it could be very useful tosome of the people here too.
Rhythmic Moon
Sixth Moon - December 13th, 2003 to January 9th, 2004.
Totem Animal - Lizard
“Rhythmic Lizard brings sixth moon of equality.
How can I extend my equality to others?
Rhythmic Lizard balances equality.
Now my key rhythmic action is to organise.”
Click here for this ‘moonths’ calendar! [Tortuga]
Sea Born: Earth Mapping I
Author/s: Copyright Nick Cumbo, (Helene Doll)
Last Edit: 01 Rhythmic Moon (White Spectral Wizard Year)
Homepage: https://www.dreamofpeace.net/seaborn/004earthmapping/
[color=olive]Each month, each of the clans (groups of five dream teams) at the Sea Life forum, participate in a clan project, choosing one of the many available through the Sea Born program. The program itself aims to encourage members to improve their dreaming skills, in a fun, friendly and supportive environment.
A key component of the Sea Born program, is the development of an incentive system, in which succesful participants are rewarded with a cool badge to add to their signature. Fortunately, to be successful, you don’t need to be an incredibly talented dreamer, or even be able to lucid dream, you simply have to put in some effort, into practising and discussing the project. Hopefully, the skills built through these projects, are skills you will continue to apply to your dreaming practise.[/color]
Introduction
Earth Mapping is a practise derived from the work of a Russian research group called Dreamhackers. I am currently working on a book with a member of the group, Helene Doll.
Each night we see five to six sleeps, each consisting of one or several scenes (the so called bubbles of dreams). The practise of Earth Mapping revolves around the plotting of the individual bubbles of dreams on a map. A number of benefits soon result from such an effort.
First of all, the practise of Earth Mapping develops the dream memory. By the continual practise of attempting to record the individual bubbles of dreams on paper, we are building our ability to recall our dreams. In this sense, the effect is much like beginning a dream journal; our dream memory improves.
Further, it is known that the development of memory is directly connected to the development of attention. Thus this practise also leads to a growth in the faculty of attention used within dreaming (some would label this the second attention). Such a growth is very important, because it allows us to navigate more consciously within dreams.
In Castaneda’s books, Don Juan suggests looking at our hands, and asking ourselves if we’re dreaming. The expectation here is that the practise will become so common place within our waking state, that it will eventually carry through into the program of dreams, and help us awaken into lucidity.
Dreamhackers modelled the dream as the analog of a text file. Many in our society, have become accustomed to the concept of simply reading through our dreams as a sequence of events, without a second thought about the possibility of controlling the program of dreams. In order to achieve this, Dreamhackers created the subprogram which acted autonomously from the general routine of dreams, and most importantly, it influenced it.
Dreamhackers substituted the subprogram of looking at our hands, with the development of the Earth Map, a far more versatile and multi-faceted approach. Luckily, just like our hands, our sense of orientation is always nearby.
By creating a space for the dreaming world in the waking state, and a place for the waking world in the dreaming state, the Earth Map forms a logical bridge between the two, and helps us live more consciously in both.
Exercise: Earth Mapping (Bubbles of Dreams)
Earth Mapping is actually quite a simple exercise. Though the practise may have the affect of developing our sketching ability, this is not really the focus of the activity. Even those who think they can’t draw will have no problems with this one.
What do we need to begin? Firstly one needs a diary for the recording of dreams. Keep it close to your bed. Secondly, a pencil and a rubber. Yes, you can choose the colour. Plug in your intention to “remember your dreams” after every awakening. Here is a template you can use to record the scheme of the terrain for individual ‘bubbles of dreams’.
https://www.dreamofpeace.net/seaborn/004earthmapping/mappingsheet.png
One should sketch the ‘bubbles of dreams’ for conscious and non-conscious dreams. However, for the purpose of this exercise only record those, which either were or or at least felt associated to some place on earth.
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1. Draw the scheme of the terrain for a particular bubble of dreams. Ie. the mountain, the lake, the building, etc.
- If you saw yourself in a building, don’t waste time on drawing different rooms. Draw the house, and everything that surrounds it.
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2. You should shade the scheme to differentiate between varying terrain levels. Ie. use darker shading for the base of the mountain, and gradually lighter shading as one reaches a higher elevations. Complete this shading exercise for each of the major elements of the scheme.
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3. Post labels on the scheme illustrating the details of the landscape. Ie. person, kangaroo, bag, etc.
- One should not be especially concrete in this situation. If you saw a wooden stake, which transformed into a snake, then call it stake/snake.
- You may like to mark each label with an asterix, or star.
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4. Post labels on the outer border of the scheme illustrating the date of the dream, environment of the dream (park, library, etc), it’s location (town, city, road, etc), and finally a title.
Soon enough, our constant fixation on the practise of Earth Mapping begins to be manifested in dreams. We suddenly recall during the sleep, that we should memorize the locality for the map. In the same moment the simple sleep is converted into the conscious/lucid dream. More and more frequently, we are pushed out into the state of conscious dreaming.
In addition to this, the dream memory begins to flow more freely. Being located in any dream we suddenly recall, that we were here earlier and can recall the circumstances of those visits. Those layers of consciousness, which were covered by time and loads of past experience, now become accessible. Among such recollections, increasingly we encounter the cases, where our mind has departed to more distant and out there states of awareness.
Exercise: Earth Mapping (Arranging the Map)
As material is accumulated, the bubbles of dreams begin to be united with one another. From the very first day a dreamer begins Earth Mapping there is a question, as to how to focus the bubbles of dreams/spheres of perception and have them relative to each other. Two techniques are offered; an intuitive arrangement or the addition of spheres with each other (at the occurrence of the common territories). This task develops a new feature of consciousness, orientation to those or other attributes .
The mind is stumped! How it is possible to fix a sphere of perception? The rational mind simply cannot understand. The encountering of adjacent spheres is a continuous riddle for the rational mind, and thus the matter enters the “second attention”, giving to us an understanding of similiarities.
After seeing in the dream, a dry foundation area, we suddenly understand that previously we saw it as a lake, and still earlier as a small pond. We accurately know that this is one and the same place. This knowledge is not given by reason, but by the newly found feeling of orientation. We gradually begin to be introduced to the second attention.
Once one begins recording the schemes for the individual bubbles of dreams, one can start plotting these locations upon an actual map depicting the city in which we lives. Usually it’s easy to find a map you can use as the basis of this online. You may find that you need to create a number of different maps, to cover distinctly different regions covered by your dreams (different cities, etc).
This also allows the dreamer to build associations between the locations plotted on the Earth Map, and their value/significance to the dreamer. For example one may use the practise to determine regions fo the map associated with:
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1. gateways to lucidity.
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2. contact with spiritual guidance
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3. peace
Together, we could at some point create unique and interesting applications for Earth Mapping, though this is not the primary focus of the project at this level. There will be other projects with that aim.
Project
In order to complete this Sea Born project, you should:
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1. Practise the Earth Mapping practise for the entirety of the month (moon).
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2. Record the schemes for at least 10 scenes/bubbles of dreams/spheres of perception (whatever you like to call them)
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3. Participate in the preparation and review questions.
Project
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1. Do you usually draw pictures to accompany your dreams?
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2. Does Earth Mapping sound fun? Was our description of the practise clear? Are there any elements of confusion?
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3. Do you pay much attention to the significance of location to your dreams before? Are there any particular locations, which you find yourself constantly returning to?
Review Questions
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1. Describe for us the arrangement of your Earth Map as it stands so far, naming the locations of at least 10 scenes/bubbles of dreams?
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2. Did you notice that you returned to any of the bubbles more than once? Why do you think this might be?
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3. Will you continue to use ‘Earth Mapping’ in your dreaming practise. Why / why not?
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4. Would you be interested in the development of additional Earth Mapping projects, in which we explore and seek out a location on the Earth Map, with a specific intent? For example, those regions associated with the “dream of peace”, or those in which we are more likely to become lucid.
Sign Up
The first step you should take if you truly wanna be successful, is to leave your name below, and let us know that you’re going to participate.
Good Luck!
The same buildings are found in different places of the town or even in other towns… I even cannot say for sure where the east and the west were, because sometimes I can find a street with one side from the southern side of the main street of Bendery, and the other side looks like the southern side of the main street of Tiraspol… And the more bubbles I draw, the less sense I find in it…I wonder if people participating in your project had this problem, and what they did in this case. In fact I am interested in this technique very much, and the dreamhackers’ site doesn’t exist any more…![Click here for this ‘moonths’ calendar! [Tortuga]](https://tortuga.com/calendar/Moon06.gif){kind=link}
