Hi Everyone. I’m catching up on a lot of things tonight and I thought sitting down to share about one of my new projects should definitely one of them. For over a year now I’ve been giving classes in NYC and talking about the art of lucid dreaming. One of the things that I’ve heard from a lot of people is that they enjoyed the workshops but were wondering if there was a way to follow up to make it easier for them to develop a regular practice. Even I’ll admit that there’s a lot of things to learn and process when it comes to delving into the world of dreams. One thing that I came to realize that it really helps to have other people to share the journey with. Even though dreaming is an amazingly personal experience we often are blind to many of the messages that come to us. Its amazing what a little shift in perspective can do to illuminate what our dreams are trying to tell us.
Sharing our dreams can be amazingly healing. One of the greatest benefits of becoming part of a dream meet up group is that you get to put yourself in the shoes of others. You get to see the real fears of people which in many cases are quite similar to your own. A friend talked to me the other day about how he heard 20 people talk about their dreams one day. He was amazed by how similar they all were! When we consider that we all feel the same emotions its really not that crazy of a thought. It seems like we are so separate but we are all working with very similar building blocks that make up our life experience. Once we realize that I believe it makes life a little bit more manageable. Its some what comforting to know that your anger is the same as some one else’. It may even look different when it is expressed in waking life or in a dream. We are all on a journey of learning and I think if we can be there for each other as we go through our own personal transformations then we will all be stronger for it.
I hope to see you at one of the upcoming Shamanic Dream Collective gatherings soon. Our next meet up is on June 22nd at 8pm at Golden Drum 97 Green St Apt G24 Brooklyn, NY. Until then, much love.
All I can really say is that I’m consistently creating things that leave me scratching my head and I like it. In a sense I really have been here. After meditating about the piece for a little while, I really feel like this is place where I’ve been. The longer I worked on it, the more I felt this to be true. A place from my imagination perhaps, but when I was working on it I knew where everything was spatially and the sensations around me. I pictured being under one of the large leaves laying on the cool pavement while the telephone wires buzzed above. I was in the backseat of the car looking through the front window at the legs of a big yellow floating monstrosity. He seemed harmless enough. The way I see it, this place that I’ve made is real in the same way that my dreams are real. Yes, I don’t experience either with my physical body but when I’m in the act of dreaming or painting I am having the experience of being there in that moment. It’s been a great project for me. I can’t wait to go somewhere else!
Here’s a nice article that appeared in the Times recently. It talks about how more and more people are taking notice of their dreams and talking about them with other people. Apparently they are the equivalent of book clubs at the moment in some places. I think it might be fun to get a study group together as well. Lets say meeting up once a month would be a good practice. Get back to me if you think you would be interested. When I’m not having workshops it would be nice to have a small community where we could share our journeys together. I had quite the experience today that I’ll share a bit of tomorrow. I was once told that if we are given gifts of knowledge from the divine and we don’t share them with one another we are like thieves. Dreams can be personal and difficult to talk about but I feel like there is a wealth of good that can come sharing them. So often we can’t even recognize our own patterns. Sometimes it takes another person standing at a different angle to recognize them for us.
In the spirit of putting one foot in front of the other, I decided to go ahead and try something new. I made this while I was watching the Netherlands vs. Uruguay game. I had not made anything before my trip to South America. No images were coming to mind so I decided to start with a single shape and see what happened from there. In this case, this is what happened. Something novel in terms of my usual creative process. After scanning the drawing I wanted to color it in a Huichol style. The Huichol are one of the few untouched shamanic cultures of Mexico. The conquistadors never found them which has made for a spiritual knowledge that goes back for thousands of years. Just as amazing as their wisdom is their art. I’ve been in awe of their color schemes for a while now and thought that this would be a good opportunity to study it a little further. You can bet that there will be more of this type of color exploration in the future.
Here is the third video from my Dream Signs series. The next time you’re in a lucid dream definitely try this one out. It’s one of those things that you just have to experience for yourself in order to really understand. I suppose that it’s much like lucid dreaming itself. You have no real clear idea of what it’s like until it happens to you. So often we have the intellectual understanding of something that we’ve never actually experienced. I find that I run into this situation a lot with my study of dreams. There is so much that I’ve learned about but have still not experienced. The interesting part is that as my practice has developed, the more I have begun to bridge the separation between concepts and the things that I’ve seen with my own astral eyes. I have continued to redefine what I think to be possible because of my lucid dreams. I believe that the same will happen to anyone who investigates this study for an extended period of time with a strong intention to develop their practice.
I’m excited to announce the date of the new workshop coming up next week! The first one had a great turn out. I couldn’t have asked for a better response. This time around I’ve thought of some more ways to make things even more interactive. There will be more opportunities to imagine what it might be like in a lucid dream. My hope is that it will not only be a more engaging experience but also one where people can connect with lucid dreaming in a more personal way. There will still be plenty of tips and information to take home so you can get to practicing right away. I’ve also had some experiences recently that continue to reshape my idea of what our dreams our made of that I look forward to sharing. I am working on some new animations that will illustrate certain concepts better than I might be able to describe them with words. I would love to see you there. Below is the poster version without the text. If you have any questions always feel free to email me. matthew.canale@gmail.com Also feel free to check out the updated Dream Yoga page for more information. Sweet dreams!
I’ve definitely watched my share of TV in my lifetime. After meditating a little on what’s actually happening during the spectating process I have to say that it’s more than I’d like to admit. If I had to guess, I’d say I’ve spent years of my life in front of the tube. It’s a scary thought. It recently occurred to me that my viewing habits were directly related to my dreaming practice. When we are in the dream, everything seems so real that we rarely notice that we are the ones creating it. I like to think that we are creating our waking state reality as well. It’s just happening at a different speed. In you’re in a lucid dream you can create a sky scrapper in the blink of an eye. In waking life, there are many steps to complete the construction of a building. In either state, it’s the same forces at work. I would say that a few of them are awareness, creativity, and belief. However, these things are meaningless unless we can wake up from the dream. That goes for the dream of our waking reality as well.
One act in particular traps people very effectively. That would be movies and television. Many people understand that movies and television shows are not real in the sense that they are not actually happening in a box in their living room. However, the catch is that during the moment of watching, most people are so engrossed that they often forget where they are. They forget they are even in their living room. Of course if you were to ask them in the middle of the program they would answer that they were in their living room. The real test is ask yourself how often you realize it when no one is asking the question. Are you viewing the movie as a person watching from your couch or are you a floating awareness constantly acting as if you were seeing the scene from the camera’s point of view? When we take on this role, we lose ourselves in the illusion that is the scene on the television. Do we identify with what we see or the thing that does the seeing?
When we go away from the screen I feel like people approach their life with a similar perspective. People think they are just watching things happen, but like the TV show, think they have little control over the content being shown. To my mind, the trick is to tap into the awareness that is at the core of all experience. When you can connect to that awareness and notice your surroundings and the nature of your reality without identifying it, you can live lucidly. It is just as important to be lucid while being awake as it is to be lucid while you’re asleep. When we begin to live life with the awareness while we are awake, that awareness will carry over to our dreams as well. With this perspective, we no longer get washed away with the tide of illusion. Instead we are a different force which can move at its own discretion and can begin to move deeper and deeper into the mystery of this human experience.
So next time you go to the movies think about where you are every now and then. Realize that you’re not a camera. Take a moment to realize that you’re a human being sitting in a movie theater. Think about how you got there or where you live. I find that if I were to ask myself these simple questions, I would become lucid in my dreams much more often. If you find that you’re getting lost in the movie, don’t feel bad about it. The movie is simply doing its job. It’s trying to take you to a different reality. When I watched Avatar in theaters I found that I was getting swept away in amazement constantly. At a certain point I decided to let myself get swept away and had an amazing cinematic experience. Sometimes it’s good to let go. Especially when you’re making the decision to do so.
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