How to control your dreams...

Somebody has just accused me of being the "carver of carousel beasts" with my dreams. A striking line... from a striking person. Tis true... I am building a mighty fantastic, if contained, bestiary from the dreams of late. But, probably a product from recent emotional earthquakes, coupled with hobby of the last 3 months...

... the half-asleep waking dream that takes 2.4 hours. It's a funny way to wake up. You hear something, you pop your eyes open, but you're still thinking in the dream, and so you convince yourself of a new storyline and keep going.

It's not new, you know, techniques for dream control. When I was a wee thing I was an avid reader of OMNI magazine, the science magazine put forth by Bob Guccione, the Penthouse editor. And I remember, in one issue, they had a complete 8 page linen paper pull out on how to control your dreams... complete with Xaviera like illustrations.

Aside: Penthouse in France is pronouced PONT-HUSE... if you run around saying... penthouse fucking rules naked chicks everywhere, people will be confused... but pull out Pont-Huse, and watch your mother-in-law blush her pants pink.

2nd Aside: OMNI, I really loved it. And apparently, I wasn't the only one. OMNI took on science fiction and fantasy, technology, cultural speculation and crack-pot weirdoes, all in one glossy arty little package. If you were to smash the Globe with Wired and Science Fiction Weekly, you'd have it. There were the Delphic Polls (will Russia ever be non-communist 83% said yes in 1984), to the UFO sighters, William Gibson's Burning Chrome in 1982, to people speculating about the internet, to what people see in Near Death Experiences (NDEs), all in the early and mid 80s.

So... technique, because it's always about technique.

Sleep... and make sure you have enough time between when the first alarm hits and when you actually have to be in action... count out maybe 2 to 2.5 hours. If you're a strange sleeper, like me, you won't even need the alarm... you'll just pop up a little ahead of your time. Then, just as you feel the pull outwards from the dream, focus on what you want to happen in the dream, and make it happen. Focus on one kind of action... usually that works. At that point, it's more an emotion than rational wish... so it works well to just give way to your desires... but the key is the almost awake almost asleep bit. Obviously, falling back to sleep is really easy, but what most people ignore is that it is precisely in this moment that you can dictate what is next in the dream.

A couple of days ago I had a really nice dream... I dreamt I was a bandleader... and I said to this kid in front of the drums to tap a little rhythm on his hi-hat...then switched to the tuba guy and told him to play a thumping c note with a g and b progression in between... and then I started to sing... and hot damn... I did me an amazing Dolly Parton 9-5 rendition. The power of desire, I always wanted to belt and boogie with a padded 80s power suit.