LUCID DREAMING Gateway to the Inner Self
清醒梦:通往内在自我的大门
作者: Robert Waggoner
PART 1 THE JOURNEY INWARD
第一部分: 内在旅行
STEPPING THROUGH THE GATE
1: 通过这扇门
LIKE MANY CHILDREN, I HAD AN INTENSE DREAM LIFE. DREAMS WERE an amazing theater of the mind featuring both glorious adventures and moments of sheer terror. In one dream, a songbird, a meadowlark, I believe, landed on my chest and sang me its simple song, which I immediately understood and woke up singing. In another dream, I found myself on a fifteen-foot Pogo stick bouncing down the deserted streets, almost flying. On occasion I seemed to be an animal - a dog or coyote, for example - trotting along the dark night's sidewalks in a four-legged gait, totally at peace, seeing the neighborhood from a canine's drooping-headed, tongue-wagging perspectiv.
像许多孩子一样,我有一个强烈的梦境生活。梦是一个令人惊奇的心灵剧场,既有辉煌的冒险,又有极度恐惧的时刻。在一个梦里,一只鸣禽一只草地雀落在我的胸前,给我唱着它简单的歌,我立刻明白过来,醒过来唱歌。在另一个梦里,我发现自己站在一根15英尺高的弹簧撑杆上,在无人的街道上蹦蹦跳跳,几乎飞起来了。有时我似乎是一种动物——一只狗或者郊狼,比如——安静的在黑夜的人行道上用四条腿小跑,以犬科动物的视角耷拉着脑袋、张口结舌的看着邻居。
With dreams like these, I was a child who had to drag himself out of bed.
有了这样的梦,那时还是一个小孩的我必须从床上爬起来。
In those early years, I remember clearly only one spontaneous lucid dream. In it, I was wandering the local library and suddenly saw a dinosaur stomping through the stacks. Somehow it dawned on me: If all dinosaurs are extinct - this must be a dream! Now consciously aware that I was dreaming, I reasoned further: Since this was a dream - I could wake up! I reasoned correctly and awoke safe in my bed.
在早年,我清楚地记得只有一次自发的清醒梦。在梦里,我在当地图书馆闲逛,突然看到一只恐龙在书库里跺脚。不知何故,我恍然大悟:如果所有的恐龙都灭绝了——这一定是一个梦!现在意识到我在做梦,我进一步推理:既然这是一个梦——我可以醒醒!我推理正确,醒来后安然无恙。
That youthful experience illuminates the essential element of lucid dreaming: the conscious awareness of being in a dream while you're dreaming. In this unique state of awareness, you can consider and carry out deliberate actions such as talking to dream figures, flying in the dream space, walking through the walls of dream buildings, creating any object desired, or making them disappear. More important, an experienced lucid dreamer can conduct experiments in the subconscious or seek information from the apparently conscious unconscious.
那次年轻的经历阐明了清醒梦的基本要素:当你做梦的时候,意识到自己在做梦。在这种独特的意识状态下,你可以思考并实施深思熟虑的行动,比如和梦中的人物说话,在梦的空间中飞翔,穿过过梦里面建筑的墙壁,创造任何想要的东西,或者让它们消失。更重要的是,有经验的清醒梦者可以在潜意识中进行实验,或者从明显有意识的潜意识中寻找信息。
But I'm getting ahead of myself . . .
但是我正在超越自己。。。
In those preteen days, before I began lucid dreaming regularly, three experiences kept alive my interest in dreaming and the psyche: occasional dreams that seemed to be precognitive, an unexpected "vision experience," and the very real sense of having access to an inner knowing. Like many, I found life's deepest mysteries in the mind.
在那些青春期前的日子里,在我开始有规律地做清醒梦之前, 三次经历让我对梦和心灵保持了兴趣: 似乎是预知的偶然梦, 一种意想不到的“视觉体验”,以及获得内在知识的真实感觉。像许多人一样,我在头脑中发现了生命最深的奥秘。
For me, the occasional precognitive dream often appeared as small events, like dreaming of someone making an odd statement in a dream, only to hear a real person make the same odd statement a few hours later, or to have a voice in the dream announce an observation that later would be proven correct. Once, the voice explained that the dream symbols meant the dream events would take three years to transpire.I kept track of that date and something incredible did indeed happen in the waking world, directly related to the dream from three years earlier.
对我来说,偶尔的预知梦经常以小事件的形式出现,比如梦见某人在梦里做了一个奇怪的陈述,几个小时后却听到一个真实的人做了同样奇怪的陈述,或者在梦里有一个声音宣布一个后来被证明是正确的观察结果。有一次,声音解释说梦的符号意味着梦的事件需要三年才能发生。我记下了那一天,不可思议的事情确实发生在现实世界中,与三年前的梦直接相关。
Precognitive dreams challenged my budding scientific worldview and disrupted my traditional religious and spiritual views. Strange coincidences, self-fulfilling prophecies, or unknown information? How was one to tell?
预知梦挑战了我初露头角的科学世界观,扰乱了我传统的宗教和精神观点。奇怪的巧合,自我实现的预言,还是未知的信息?怎么说呢?
One day in my preteen, church-going mind, I had a mini-epiphany. It occurred to me that if God was the same "yesterday, today, and forever," as they said in the Old Testament, then God must exist outside of time, apart from time, in a place where time had no meaning. And, if that were true, then perhaps dreams were the gateway to a place without time, where time existed in one glorious Now. Yet my young science-educated mind balked at this notion. A dreamt event followed by a waking event could be nothing more than sheer coincidence and didn't necessarily entail any foreknowing. Or perhaps it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which I unknowingly helped bring about the event that I dreamt. And even when a dream voice made an observation that later turned out to be true, perhaps my creative unconscious had simply noticed things and, by calculating the likely outcome of those things, made a clever announcemen
在我青春期前的一天,去教堂的时候,我有了一个小小的顿悟。我突然想到,如果上帝和《旧约》中所说的“昨天、今天、永远”一样,那么上帝一定存在于时间之外,远离时间,存在于一个时间毫无意义的地方。如果这是真的,那么梦可能是通往一个与时间无关的地方的大门,在那里时间存在于一个辉煌的现在之内。然而,我年轻的受过科学教育的头脑对这种想法犹豫不决。梦里的事件跟醒来的事件可能只是纯粹的巧合,并不一定需要任何预知。或者可能是一个 自我实现的预言,我在不知不觉中促成了我梦寐以求的事件。甚至梦里面一个声音说了最后被证实的一句话,也许我创造性的无意识只是注意到了一些事情,再通过计算这些事情可能的结果之后做了一个聪明的播音员。
As this spiritual questioning was going on, another fascinating incident occurred. One Sunday evening when I was eleven or twelve, I lay on my bed reading a book and stopped for a moment to think. As I absentmindedly looked up at the ceiling, my head suddenly turned north and I began to see a vision of a Native American setting overlaying the physical scene. I struggled to free myself from this unexpected experience while another part of me took in the vision. Finally it stopped。
当这种精神上的质疑继续进行时,另一个迷人的事件发生了。在我11岁或12岁的时候的一个星期天的晚上,我躺在床上看书,停下来想了一会儿。当我心不在焉地抬头看着天花板时,我的头突然转向北方,我开始看到一个美国土著人覆盖在物理现实上。我努力从这一意想不到的经历中解脱出来,然而我的另一部分接受了这一幻觉。终于停止了。
At that young age, what do you do with something like this? In my case, I went to the library. I flipped through a number of books about the Old Testament containing commentary on visions but found little of value for me there. I also checked out a few books on Native American culture and discovered the vision quest, a traditional practice by which youth gain insight into their lives. Normally a vision quest occurs in a ritual fashion. The young person is obligated to leave the tribe and travel alone for a period of days of fasting, praying, and waiting for the visionary experience. Yet why would something like that happen to me? Only years later did I discover that our family had Native American ancestry.
在这么小的时候,遇到这些事情后你会做什么?就我而言,我去了图书馆。我翻了几本关于旧约的书,里面有关于异象的注释,但在那里我发现没有什么价值。我还看了几本关于美国土著文化的书,发现了视觉探索,这是一种让年轻人洞察自己生活的传统做法。通常,视觉探索以仪式的方式进行。年轻人有义务离开部落,独自旅行一段时间,禁食,祈祷,等待幻想的体验。然而为什么这样的事情会发生在我身上?仅仅几年后,我才发现我们家有美国土著血统。
Somewhere in this time period, I also recognized the presence of an "inner advisor," for lack of a better term. At certain times, when I considered things deeply, an inner knowing appeared in my mind. It was such a natural thing, I assumed everyone experienced this. It was like having the services of a wise old man inside. For example, after a very simple incident that most anyone would ignore, the inner knowing would make an observation about life or suggest the prosaic incident as a living parable. The comments seemed intelligent, even remarkable. I began to sense that all around me life had meaning, if I only cared to look. Since I lived in the middle of Kansas, far from the centers of world power, the pace of life was slower and perhaps simpler, yet below the surface, at another level, I knew we had everything, all the lessons of life.
在这段时间的某个时候,我也意识到了“内在顾问”的存在,因为缺少更好的术语。在某些时候,当我深入思考事情时,一种内在的认识出现在我的脑海里。这是很自然的事情,我想每个人都经历过。这就像有一个聪明的老人在里面服务。例如,在一个大多数人都会忽略的非常简单的事件之后,内心的认知会对生活进行观察,或者把这个平淡无奇的事件当作一个活生生的寓言。我开始感觉到,只要我愿意看,我周围的生活都有意义。因为我住在堪萨斯州中部,远离世界权力中心,生活节奏较慢,也许更简单,但在表面之下,在另一个层面上,我知道我们拥有一切,所有生活的教训。
Like any teenager, I'd pester this inner advisor - What am I? Who am I? To these questions I was given two answers and then never visited the issue again (although the answers rolled around my mind for decades). In one instance, to my "Who am I?" the inner advisor responded, "Everything and nothing." Okay, I thought, any person in a sense has the potential capabilities of all, but in having them also has nothing, for time or the fates will sweep it all away. In those words, too, I sensed a hidden connection between the rich lavishness of Being and the complete freedom of Nothing. But still not entirely content with being a place marker between two extremes, I continued to pester myself and, by extension, the inner advisor with the question of identity until, one day, an answer came that laid all further questions to rest. "You are what you let yourself become," said the inner advisor. That answer satisfied me completely: The living of life was an allowing of self.
像任何青少年一样,我会纠缠这个内在的顾问——我是谁?我是谁?对于这些问题,我得到了两个答案,然后就再也没有讨论过这个问题(尽管这些答案在我脑海中盘旋了几十年)。举个例子,对于“我是谁?”内部顾问回答说,“什么都是,什么都不是”。好吧,我想,从某种意义上来说,任何人都拥有所有人的潜在能力,但拥有这潜在能力也没有什么了不起,因为时间或命运会把一切都扫走。用这些话来说,我也感觉到了存在的丰富奢华和虚无的完全自由之间的隐藏联系。但我仍然不完全满足于成为两个极端之间的一个位置标记,我继续纠缠着自己,进而纠缠着内心的顾问,直到有一天,一个答案出现了,所有进一步的问题都被搁置了。“你让自己变成谁你就是谁,”内心的顾问说。这个答案让我完全满意:生活是对自我的一种允许。
Altogether, the precognitive dreams, the vision experience, and my search for spiritual meaning kept me probing for satisfying and complete answers. Obviously, my intense inner life, sparked by thoughtprovoking dreams, created a persistent desire to accept, abandon, or perhaps bridge one of the two worldviews: the scientific and the spiritual. Which is why in 1975, at age sixteen, I picked up one of my oldest brother's books, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, and embarked on my first lesson in lucid dreaming.
总的来说,预知的梦、视觉体验和我对精神意义的探索让我不断探索令人满意和完整的答案。很明显,我强烈的内心生活,被发人深省的梦所激发,产生了一种持续的欲望,想要接受、放弃或者也许是弥合两种世界观中的一种:科学的和精神的。这就是为什么在1975年,16岁的时候,我拿起了我哥哥的一本书,卡洛斯·卡斯塔尼达的《去往大西洋彼岸:唐望的教训》,开始了我的第一堂清醒梦课程。
As some readers may know, Carlos Castaneda was an anthropology graduate student at UCLA in the 1960s who sought to learn from native shamans about psychotropic plants in the southwestern United States and Mexico. According to his story, he met a Yaqui Indian sorcerer, don Juan, who agreed to teach him about hallucinogenic plants. In the process, don Juan provided Castaneda with a unique view of the world. Even more important, perhaps, don Juan supplied techniques to experience this new worldview.
一些读者可能知道,卡洛斯·卡斯塔尼达是20世纪60年代加州大学洛杉矶分校的人类学研究生,他试图向当地的萨满了解美国西南部和墨西哥的精神植物。根据他的故事,他遇到了一个雅基族印第安巫师,唐望,他同意教他关于致幻植物的知识。在这个过程中,唐望为卡斯塔尼达提供了独特的世界观。也许更重要的是,唐望提供了体验这种新世界观的技巧。
The philosophy of don Juan might be summed up in these words, spoken to Castaneda: "[Y]our idea of the world . . . is everything; and when that changes, the world itself changes." Don Juan constantly pushed Castaneda to consider new and world-changing ideas and to become more mentally flexible.
唐望的哲学可以用这些话来概括,对卡斯塔尼达说:"我们对世界的看法。。。是一切;当这种情况改变时,世界本身也会改变。"唐望不断敦促卡斯塔尼达考虑新的和改变世界的想法,变得更加灵活。
Castaneda has recounted in numerous books his decade-long association with don Juan. While many have openly questioned Castaneda's veracity in storytelling,4 his many books nevertheless contain a number of provocative ideas and, like many young people, I was intrigued. I read Journey to Ixtlan and decided to try just one of the ideas, never imagining how transformative an idea could be.
卡斯塔尼达在许多书中讲述了他与唐望长达十年的交往。虽然许多人公开质疑卡斯塔尼达讲故事的真实性,但他的许多书仍然包含了许多激进的想法,和许多年轻人一样,我对此很感兴趣。我读了《依斯特兰之旅》,决定尝试其中一个想法,从没有想过一个想法能够有多大的改变能力。
Don Juan suggests to Castaneda a simple technique to "set up dreaming" or become conscious in the dream state. "Tonight in your dreams you must look at your hands," don Juan instructs Castaneda. After some discussion about the meaning of dreaming and the choice of hands as an object to dream about, don Juan continues. "You don't have to look at your hands," he says. "Like I've said, pick anything at all. But pick one thing in advance and find it in your dreams. I said your hands because they will always be there.“
唐望向卡斯塔尼达建议了一个简单的技巧来“开始做梦”或者在梦的状态中变得有意识。“今晚在你的梦里,你必须看着你的手,”唐望指示卡斯塔尼达。在讨论了梦的含义和选择手作为梦的对象之后,唐望继续说道。“你并不一定要看你的手,”他说。”就像我说过的,什么都可以挑。但前提是选择一个东西,在你的梦里找到它。我说你的手,因为它们永远都在那里。“
Don Juan further advised Castaneda that whenever an object or scene that he was looking at began to shift or waver in the dream, he should consciously look back at his hands to stabilize the dream and renew the power of dreaming.
唐望进一步建议卡斯塔尼达,每当他所看到的物体或场景在梦里开始移动或摇摆时,他应该有意识地回头看他的手,以稳定梦和更新梦的力量。
Simple enough, I thought. So, before going to sleep each night, I sat cross-legged in bed and began looking at the palms of my hands. Mentally, I quietly told myself, "Tonight, I will see my hands in my dream and realize I'm dreaming." I repeated the suggestion over and over, until I became too tired and decided to go to sleep.
很简单,我想。所以,每天晚上睡觉前,我盘腿坐在床上,开始看我的手掌。在心里,我悄悄地告诉自己,“今晚,我会在梦里看到我的手,意识到我在做梦。” 我一遍又一遍地重复这个建议,直到我太累了,决定去睡觉。
Waking up in the middle of the night, I reviewed my last dream. Had I seen my hands? No . But still hopeful, I fell back asleep remembering my goal. Within a few nights of trying this technique, it happened. I had my first actively sought lucid dream.
半夜醒来,我回顾了我的最后一个梦。我看到我的手了吗?没有。但我仍然满怀希望,回忆起我的目标,我又睡着了。在尝试这项技术的几个晚上内,它就发生了。我做了第一个积极寻求的清醒梦:
I'm walking in the busy hallways of my high school at the junction of B and C halls. As I prepare to push the door open, my hands spontaneously fly up in front of my face! They literally pop up in front of me! I stare in wonder at them. Suddenly, I consciously realize, "My hands! This is a dream! I'm dreaming this!"
我正走在我高中的繁忙走廊里,在B和C大厅的交界处。当我准备推开门的时候,我的手不由自主地在我面前飞了起来!他们完全地出现在我面前!我惊奇地盯着它们。突然,我意识到,“我的手!这是一个梦!我在做梦!”
I look around me, amazed that I am aware within a dream. All around me is a dream. Incredible! Everything looks so vivid and real.
我环顾四周,惊讶地发现自己清楚的知道在梦中。我周围的一切都是一场梦。难以置信。一切看起来如此生动和真实。
I walk through the doors a few feet toward the administration building while a great feeling of euphoria and energy wells up inside. As I stop and look at the brick wall, the dream seems a bit wobbly. I lucidly remember don Juan's advice and decide to look back down at my hands to stabilize the dream when something incredible happens. As I look at my hands, I become totally absorbed in them. " I " now see each fingerprint, each line, as a giant flesh-toned canyon that I float within and through. The world has become my palm print, and I'm moving about its vast canyons and gullies and whorls as a floating speck of awareness. I no longer see my hand; I see cream-colored, canyon-like walls of varying undulations surrounding and towering above me, which some part of me knows as my fingerprints or palm prints! As for me, " I " seem to be a dot of aware perception floating through all of this - joyous, aware, and full of awe.
我穿过大门,朝行政大楼走了几英尺,一种巨大的兴奋感和活力油然而生。当我停下来看着砖墙时,梦似乎有点不稳定。我清楚地记得唐望的建议并决定了当不可思议的事情发生时回头看看我的手来稳定梦境。当我看着我的手时,我完全被它们吸引住了。“我”现在看到每一个指纹,每一条线,就像一个巨大的肉色峡谷,我漂浮在里面,穿过它。这个世界已经成为我的掌印,我在它的巨大峡谷、沟壑和漩涡中移动,像一个漂浮的意识点。我不再看见我的手;我看到米色的、峡谷般的墙壁,周围有各种起伏,高耸在我的上方,我的某些部分知道这是我的指纹或掌纹!对我来说,“我”似乎是一个有意识的感知点,漂浮在这一切之中——快乐,有意识,充满敬畏。
I'm wondering how this could be, when suddenly my vision pops back to normal proportions and I see again that I am standing, hands outstretched, in front of the administration building. Still consciously aware, I think about what to do next. I walk a few feet but feel an incredible urge to fly - I want to fly! I become airborne heading straight up for the intense blue sky. As my feeling of overwhelming joy reaches maximum pitch, the lucid dream ends.
我在想这是怎么回事,突然我的视力恢复正常,我再次看到我站在行政大楼前,伸出双手。我仍然有意识地觉知,我在思考下一步该做什么。我走了几英尺,但感到一种难以置信的想飞的冲动——我想飞!我飞上空中,直冲向强烈的蓝天。当我无比喜悦的感觉达到最大程度时,清醒梦结束了。
I awake in bed, totally astounded, my heart pounding and head reeling. Never had I felt such intense feelings of elation, energy, and utter freedom. I had done it! I had seen my hands literally fly up to face level in my dreams as if propelled by some magical force and I realized, "This is a dream!" At the age of sixteen, I had become conscious in the dream state. And suddenly, like Dorothy in Oz, I was not in Kansas any more.
我在床上醒来,完全惊呆了,我的心怦怦直跳,头晕目眩。我从未有过如此强烈的兴奋、活力和完全自由的感觉。我做到了!我在梦里看到我的手几乎飞到脸的高度,好像被某种神奇的力量推动着,我意识到,“这是一场梦!”十六岁时,我在梦里变得有意识。突然间,就像桃乐西在奥兹国中,我不再是在堪萨斯州了。
Well, actually, I was in Kansas for another year, until I left for college.
实际上,我在堪萨斯又呆了一年,直到我去上大学。
THE PARADOX OF THE SENSES
意识的潘多拉盒子
My first lucid dream felt like a monumental achievement. I had actually become aware in a dream. Moreover, in the don Juan tradition, this first lucid dream seemed filled with auspicious symbols - becoming a speck of awareness floating through my palm prints, maintaining the dream, working on awareness outside of the "administration building" (symbol for my own inner authority, perhaps). I was excited.
我的第一个清醒梦感觉像是一个巨大的成就。我实际上是在梦中意识到的。此外,在唐望的传统中,这第一个清晰的梦似乎充满了吉祥的象征——我掌纹中漂浮的一点点意识,稳定着梦境,在“行政大楼”意识之上起作用(也许是我内心权威的象征)。我很兴奋。
Still, it seemed so paradoxical - becoming conscious in the unconscious. What a concept! Like some teenage magician of the dreaming realm, I had done what scientists at the time proclaimed could not be done.
然而,这似乎是如此矛盾——在无意识中变得有意识。多好的概念啊!就像梦境中的一些青少年魔术师一样,我做了当时科学家宣称不可能做的事情。
Little did I know, during that same time in April of 1975, thousands of miles away at the University of Hull in England, a lucid dreamer named Alan Worsley was making the first-ever scientifically recorded signals from the lucid state to researcher Keith Hearne. By making prearranged eye movements (left to right eight times), Worsley signaled his lucid awareness from the dream state. Pads on his eyes recorded the deliberate eye movements on a polygraphs printout. At that moment, Hearne recalls, "It was like getting signals from another world. Philosophically, scientifically, it was simply mind blowing." Hearne and Worsley were the first to conceive of the idea and demonstrate that deliberate eye movements could signal the conscious awareness of the dreamer from within the dream state.
1975年4月的同一时间,在数千英里之外的英国赫尔大学,一个名叫艾伦·沃斯利的清醒梦者向研究人员基思·赫恩发出了有史以来第一个科学记录的清醒状态信号,我对此一无所知。通过预先安排好的眼球运动(从左到右八次),沃斯利从梦中发出清醒的信号。他眼睛上的护垫记录了测谎仪打印出来的故意眼球运动。候恩回忆道,那一刻,“这就像从另一个世界获得信号。从哲学上,从科学上来说,这只是简单的意识干扰。” 赫恩和沃斯利是第一个想到这个想法的人,他们证明了深思熟虑的眼球运动可以从梦的状态中发出做梦者的意识的信号。
A few years later, in 1978, Stanford sleep lab researcher Stephen LaBerge, using himself as the lucid dreaming subject, devised a separate,similar experiment of signaling awareness from the dream state through eye movement. Publishing his work in more broadly read scientific journals, LaBerge became strongly identified with this exciting discovery and a leader in its continued research.
几年后,在1978年,斯坦福睡眠实验室的研究员斯蒂芬·拉贝热(Stephen LaBerge)以他自己为清醒梦的研究对象,设计了一个单独的类似实验,通过眼球运动从梦的状态发出意识信号。在更广泛阅读的科学杂志上发表他的作品,拉贝热强烈认同这一激动人心的发现,并成为其继续研究的领导者。
Back in Kansas, each night before I went to sleep I would look at my hands and remind myself that I wished to see my hands in my dreams. Of course anyone who tries this will soon discover that staring at your hands for more than ten seconds is quite boring. When you already feel sleepy, it takes real effort to concentrate. Your eyes cross, your hands get fuzzy, your attention wavers, within a minute or two you may even become so bored and tired as to go blank momentarily. After a few minutes, I would give up and prepare for sleep. At the time,I chastised myself for my lack of concentration and wavering focus, but later I came to feel that these natural responses were actually the best approach, since the waking ego seemed too tired to care about the game my conscious mind wanted to play. In fact, don Juan suggested that the waking ego often felt threatened by the more profound nature of our inner realm. Perhaps a sleepy ego would be less likely to interfere.
回到堪萨斯州,每天晚上睡觉前,我都会看着自己的手,提醒自己希望在梦里看到自己的手。当然,任何尝试过这种方法的人都会很快发现盯着你的手看十秒钟以上是很无聊的。当你已经感到困倦时,需要真正的努力来集中注意力。你的眼睛交叉,你的手变得模糊,你的注意力动摇,在一两分钟内,你甚至可能变得如此无聊和疲惫,以至于瞬间变得空白。几分钟后,我会放弃,准备睡觉。当时,我责备自己注意力不集中,注意力不集中,但后来我觉得这些自然反应实际上是最好的方法,因为清醒的自我似乎太累了,不关心我的意识想玩的游戏。事实上,唐望认为清醒的自我经常会被我们内心世界更深刻的本质所威胁。也许沉睡的自我不太可能干涉。
My next few lucid dreams were lessons in exquisite brevity. I would be in a dream, see my hands in the course of the dream (e.g., as I opened a door with my hand or as if by some inner prompting my hands would suddenly appear directly in front of me) and immediately realize I was in a dream. I'd experience a rush of exhilaration, joy, and energy. As I took in the dream surroundings, my feelings of joy rose to such levels that the lucid dream would begin to feel unstable and then come to an end. I would awaken, full of joy but mystified by the sudden collapse of the lucid dream.
我接下来的几个清醒梦是极其简洁的课程。我会在梦里,在梦的课程里看我的手(例如,当我用手打开一扇门时,或者好像通过某种内在的提示,我的手会突然出现在我的正前方)然后立刻意识到我在做梦。我会感受到一股兴奋、喜悦和活力。我会感受到一股兴奋、喜悦和活力。当我进入梦的环境时,我的快乐感上升到这样的程度,以至于清醒梦开始感觉不稳定,然后结束。我会醒来,充满喜悦,但对清醒梦的突然崩溃感到困惑。
This brought me to one of my first lessons of lucid dreaming.
这让我想起了清醒梦的第一课。
To maintain the lucid dream state, you must modulate your emotion.
为了保持清醒的梦状态,你必须调整你的情绪。
Too much emotional energy causes the lucid dream to collapse. Years later, I learned that virtually all lucid dreamers realize this same lesson and as a result learn to temper their emotions.
过多的情感能量会导致清醒梦的崩溃。几年后,我了解到几乎所有清醒梦者都意识到了这一点,因此学会了调节自己的情绪。
After reading don Juan's exhortation to Castaneda that he should try to stabilize the dream environment and, bit by bit, make it as sharply focused as the waking environment, this became my new goal. Don
Juan advised that the dreamer should concentrate on only three or four objects in the dream, saying, "When they begin to change shape you must move your sight away from them and pick something else, and then look at your hands again. It takes a long time to perfect this technique."
读完唐望对卡斯塔尼达的劝诫:"他应该努力稳定梦的环境,并一点一点地使它像醒着的环境一样集中注意力",这成了我的新目标。唐望建议做梦的人应该只专注于梦里的三四个物体,他说: "当它们开始改变形状时,你必须把视线从它们身上移开,选择其他东西,然后再看你的手。精通这项技术需要很长时间。"
In the next dream, I was walking at night and suddenly saw my hands appear directly in front of me. I immediately realized I was dreaming. Lucid, I took a few steps and noticed the colors were extremely vibrant; everything seemed so "real." I felt euphoric and knew that the dream would end unless I could regulate my feelings, so I looked back at my hands to stabilize the dream and decrease my emotional upsurge.
在接下来的梦里,我在晚上散步,突然看到我的手出现在我面前。我立刻意识到我在做梦。清醒时,我走了几步,注意到颜色非常鲜艳;一切看起来都那么“真实”。我感到极度兴奋,知道除非我能控制自己的情绪,否则梦就会结束,所以我回头看了看我的手,以稳定梦,减少我高涨的情绪。
After a few moments, I looked around at the grassy knoll on which I was standing. I seemed to be inside a fenced enclosure that included a building, similar to a military or secured installation. I took a few steps and looked at my hands again to stabilize the dream. There were some small evergreens ten feet away, obviously recently planted. I knelt and touched the grass. It felt soft and grass-like. I marveled at how lifelike and realistic everything looked and how I could think about what I was seeing and choose what to do next. I touched myself and, Wow, even I felt real! But I knew my awareness existed within a dream and I was touching a representation of my physical body, which only felt like a real body.
过了一会儿,我向四周看了看我站着的草地上。我好像在一个有围栏的围栏里,围栏里有一座建筑,类似于一个军事或安全设施。我走了几步,又看了看我的手,稳定了梦境。十英尺外有一些小常青树,显然是最近种的。我跪下来摸了摸草地。感觉像草一样柔软。我惊叹于一切看起来如此逼真和真实,我如何思考我所看到的,并选择下一步做什么。我摸了摸自己,哇,连我都觉得真实!但是我知道我的意识存在于一个梦里,我触摸到了我身体的一个代表,那感觉就像一个真实的身体。
Trying to make sense of what I was seeing, I had the intuitive feeling that the building housed computers and was somewhere in the southwestern United States. But where? As I took a few steps toward the building to look for a name, the imagery started to become unfocused. I looked back at my hands but it was too late - the lucid dream collapsed and I awoke.
为了理解我所看到的,我有一种直觉,那就是这栋大楼里有电脑,而且在美国西南部的某个地方。但是在哪里?当我向大楼走了几步去寻找名字时,图像开始变得不清晰。我回头看了看我的手,但已经太晚了——清醒梦崩溃了,我醒了。
It began to sink in that knowing it was a dream did not make it seem unreal. The grass felt like real grass. My skin felt like real skin. If I truly focused on something, like the ground, I could actually see the individual blades of grass and grains of sand. When awake, we consider seeing and touching as largely physical activities, but in lucid dreaming, I began to see that seeing and touching were also mental activities and
equally real-seeming when consciously aware in the dream state. Which brought me to my next lesson:
这种认识开始深入人心,知道这是一场梦之后并不会让它看起来不真实。草摸起来像真正的草。我的皮肤感觉像真的皮肤。如果我真的专注于某样东西,比如地面,我实际上可以看到单个的草叶和沙粒。醒着的时候,我们认为看见和触摸主要是身体活动,但是在清醒梦里,我开始看到看见和触摸也是精神活动并且同样真实——当在梦境中有意识地意识到的时候。这让我想到了下一课:
Our senses provide little distinction between physical reality and the real-seeming illusion of the lucid dream. Only the mind distinguishes between the two realities.
我们的感官很少区分物质现实和清醒梦的假象。只有头脑才能区分这两种现实。
In later lucid dreams, I tried the other senses - taste, smell, and hearing - and discovered that they, too, seemed real experiences, or at least largely real. Even self-induced pain - pinching myself in the lucid state, for example - actually hurt. But if I pinched myself while telling myself it would not hurt, it didn't hurt. Here I uncovered an odd aspect of the lucid dream realm: My experience would normally follow what I lucidly expected to feel.
在后来的清醒梦里,我尝试了其他感官——味觉、嗅觉和听觉——发现它们也是真实的体验,或者至少在很大程度上是真实的。即使是自我诱发的疼痛——比如在清醒状态下掐自己——实际上也很痛。但是如果我掐自己一下并且告诉自己不会痛,这时就不会痛了。在这里,我发现了清醒梦领域的一个奇怪的方面: 我的经历通常会跟随我清晰地期望的感觉。
Fellow lucid dreamers I've met over the years seem to agree with me that the senses proclaimed each experience as real as waking experience. Yet, experienced lucid dreamers note that if they predetermine or expect what to feel or how to feel, they can alter the sensory experience in line with their expectations. In other words, "As you believe, so shall it be" is a powerful truth when lucid.
我多年来遇到的清醒梦者似乎都同意我的观点,即感官宣称每一次经历都和清醒时的经历一样真实。然而,有经验的清醒梦者注意到,如果他们预先决定或期望感受什么或如何感受,他们可以根据自己的期望改变感官体验。换句话说,“你信什么,它就是什么”是一个清晰的有力真理。
In the lucid dream state, the senses show themselves as the confirmers of expectation - not infallible guides to sensory response - and experience is largely infused with mental expectation about the experience. Just as in studies on hypnosis and pain reduction, the senses somehow bend to the intent of hypnotic suggestion. In both lucid dreaming and hypnosis, the senses don't appear as biological absolutes but more as the servants of the mind.
在清醒梦的状态下,感官表现为期望的确认者——而不是感官反应的可靠向导——而经验在很大程度上充满了对经验的精神期待。就像在催眠和减轻疼痛的研究中一样,感官以某种方式屈从于催眠暗示的引导。在清醒梦和催眠中,感官并不表现为生物的绝对,而是表现为心灵的仆人。
By age eighteen, I had visited a hypnotist to learn about selfhypnosis. I understood the basic concept that suggestions made to us while intensely focused in a mild trance state influenced the subconscious and affected our perceived experience. Now I could see that being consciously aware in the subconscious (i.e., lucid dreaming) possessed similarities to deeper self-hypnosis.
十八岁时,我去拜访了一位催眠师,以了解自我催眠。我理解这样一个基本概念,即当我们在轻度恍惚状态下高度集中注意力时,给我们的暗示会影响潜意识,影响我们感知的体验。现在我可以看到潜意识中保持觉知(即清醒梦)与更深层次的自我催眠有相似之处。
Our suggestions in a state of hypnosis or self-hypnosis act on the senses. For example, we can make a posthypnotic suggestion that certain foods will taste opposite to their normal taste and experience the suggested taste upon waking. Or we can suggest that we will feel minimal pain during, say, a tooth extraction, and then experience remarkably little pain. Similarly, when lucid in a dream, the senses naturally follow expectation (expectation being a type of natural mental suggestion). In fact, one of the advantages to lucid dreaming involves seeing the immediate results of your suggestion or expectation. If I lucidly dream of a fire, for example, and expect to feel no heat upon walking in it, I'll feel no heat. If I change my expectation to feel the fire's heat, my new expectation will be realized, and I'll feel definite heat.
我们在催眠或自我催眠状态下的暗示作用于感官。例如,我们可以做出一个催眠暗示,让某些食物的味道与它们的正常味道相反,并且在醒来时会体验到所暗示的味道。或者我们可以说,在拔牙的过程中,我们会感到轻微的疼痛,然后会感到非常轻微的疼痛。同样,当在梦中清醒时,感官自然地跟随期望(期望是一种自然的心理暗示)。事实上,清醒梦的一个好处是可以看到你的暗示或期待的直接结果。例如,如果我清晰地梦见一堆火,并期望在火中行走时感觉不到热量,我就感觉不到热量。如果我改变我的期望去感受火的热度,我的新期望将会实现,我将会感受到明确的热度。
My lucid dreaming experiences made me wonder how extensively the mind influences perception and sensation while waking. Conscious in the dream state, the influence seems pervasive. During waking, I simply assumed I experienced things "as they actually exist." Yet I knew from my exposure to hypnosis that waking sensory experience could actually be considerably modified.
我的清醒梦经历让我想知道清醒时大脑对感知和感觉的影响有多广泛。意识处于做梦状态,这种影响似乎无处不在。在清醒时,我只是假设我经历了“实际存在的”事物. 然而,从我的催眠经历中,我知道清醒时的感官体验实际上可以被大大修改。
All dreamers can see how unreliable the senses behave in telling us the difference between waking and dreaming. In almost every dream, the senses don't inform us of the difference between waking and dreaming; rather, they seem to confirm that whatever reality seems to be happening is indeed happening. Dreaming seems real, our senses tell us. Waking seems real, our senses tell us. To sense the reality of our situation requires a new perspective. The lesson:
所有做梦的人都能看到,从告诉我们清醒和做梦的区别来看,感官是多么不可靠。几乎在每一个梦里,感官都没有告诉我们清醒和做梦的区别;更确切地说,他们似乎证实了无论什么样的现实正在发生,都是真实发生的。梦似乎是真实的,我们的感官告诉我们。清醒似乎是真实的,我们的感官告诉我们。要了解我们的现状需要一个新的视角。教训是:
Only by increasing our conscious awareness in the dream state can we ever realize the nature of the reality we experience.
只有在梦境中增强我们的意识,我们才能意识到我们所经历的m现实的本质。
So, the senses pose a problem. They tell us we exist, but they don't indicate the state of our existence: Are we awake, dreaming, or lucid dreaming? Since the senses don't remind us we're lucid and in a dream,
holding onto conscious awareness in the dream state requires considerable training in greater mindfulness.
所以,感官带来了一个问题。它们告诉我们存在,但它们并不表明我们的存在状态: 我们是醒着、做梦还是清醒梦?因为感官不会提醒我们清醒和在梦里,在梦的状态中保持有意识的觉知需要在更大的觉察中进行大量的训练。
For example, in many of my early lucid dreams, my hands would appear and I'd realize I was dreaming. Then as I lucidly interacted with the dream, some interesting dream figure would become so compelling and real-seeming that my attention to "the dream as dream" decreased significantly. I'd begin to forget that this was "all a dream." Just as in waking, your conscious attention can begin to drift when lucid dreaming. After a few unfocused moments, you're swept into the dreaming, following its movements, suddenly unaware and no longer lucid. Not only did I need to be consciously aware of being in a dream, I needed to be consciously aware of being aware!
例如,在我早期的许多清醒梦里,我的手会出现,我会意识到我在做梦。然后,当我清晰地与梦互动时,一些有趣的梦的形象会变得如此引人注目和真实,以至于我对“梦即梦”的关注显著减少。就像清醒时一样,当清醒做梦时,你的意识注意力会开始漂移。经过一些(意识)不集中的时刻后,你被带入梦境,跟随它的运动,突然意识不到,然后不再清晰。我不仅需要觉察到自己在做梦,我还需要觉察到正在觉察!
Once again, a new lesson emerged:
一个新的教训再次出现:
Lucid dreamers must learn to focus simultaneously on both their conscious awareness and the apparent dreaming activities. Lucid dreamers who become overly focused on the dreaming activities get swept back into non-lucid dreaming. So too, lucid dreamers who become inattentive to the fact of their conscious awareness risk becoming lost to the dreaming. To maintain lucidity, we must develop a proper balance of mindful, aware interacting to engage the dream consciously.
清醒做梦者必须学会同时关注他们的意识和明显的做梦活动。过度专注于做梦活动的清醒梦者会被扫回非清醒梦。同样,清醒的做梦者如果不注意觉察,就有可能迷失在梦中。为了保持清醒,我们必须在警觉和意识互动中发展适当的平衡,以有意识地参与梦。
In an environment that appears real, our awareness has to adopt a neutral stance: be in the environment but not of the environment. Engage the dream, but never forget it's a dream. In my experience, keeping your foot on the tightrope of awareness is an ever-present challenge. In about a third of my early lucid dreams, I would become lucid but eventually, through inattention or engrossment, I'd fall off the tightrope. Each time I fell off, though, it acted as another lesson in the importance of maintaining mindful awareness.
在一个看似真实的环境中,我们的意识必须采取一种中立的姿态:在环境中,而不是在环境中。连接梦,但永远不要忘记这是一个梦。以我的经验,让你的脚踩在意识的钢索上是一个永远存在的挑战。在我早期清醒梦的大约三分之一中,我会变得清醒,但最终,由于疏忽或全神贯注,我会从钢索上掉下来。然而,每次我跌倒,它都是另一个关于保持警觉意识重要性的教训。
The awareness needed for meditation, at least some forms of it, seems analogous to what lucid dreamers seek to develop. Meditators, especially beginners, have to learn a sense of balance when they turn inward; otherwise, they can fall asleep while meditating or become caught up and engaged with entrancing thoughts. Likewise, beginning lucid dreamers often hold focused awareness for only a short period of time. It takes practice and patience and poise to hold awareness consciously while being confronted with new thoughts or images - the products of the mind.
冥想所需要的意识,至少是它的某些形式,似乎类似于清醒梦者寻求发展的东西。冥想者,尤其是初学者,当他们向内转时,必须学会一种平衡感;否则,他们会在冥想的时候睡着,或者陷入迷人的思绪中。同样,开始清醒做梦的人通常只在短时间内保持集中意识。当面对新思想或新形象时——头脑的产物,保持觉知需要练习、耐心和沉着。
As you log time in the lucid dream realm, you develop poise, confidence, skills, and flexibility. Your awareness begins to relate differently to thoughts and images. You don't get swept into dream or thought events as easily; rather, you pick and choose what to accept with a greater sense of engaged detachment.
当你在清醒梦中记录时间时,你会发展出沉着、自信、技能和灵活性。你的意识开始以不同的方式与思想和图像联系起来。你不会那么容易陷入梦或思想事件;相反,你会带着更大的投入和超然感来选择接受什么。
At deeper levels of lucid dreaming, you might discover how to remain aware even when the dream visually ends, and then wait for a new dream to form in the mental space around you, as I did, for example, in the following lucid dream (October 2002):
在更深层次的清醒梦里,你可能会发现如何保持意识,即使梦在视觉上结束了,然后等待一个新的梦在你周围的精神空间里形成,就像我做的那样,例如,在下面的清醒梦里(2002年10月):
I seem to be walking through a small town. I enter a simple restaurant and walk through it into a mechanic's garage. I see a door and decide to slip through it, even though it seems to have a string attached to an alarm. As I get out into the street, I look around and realize, "This is a dream."
我好像正在穿过一个小镇。我走进一家简单的餐馆,走进一家技工的车库。我看到一扇门,决定溜进去,尽管它似乎有一根绳子系在警报器上。当我走到街上,我环顾四周,意识到,“这是一个梦。”
Lucidly aware now, I start flying up the street, looking at the people sitting in candle-lit cafes and walking down the street. The detail is incredibly vivid. I sing a funny rhyming song as I look at things. I keep flying farther and end up outside of town with a strong inclination to fly to the right. But then in a moment of conscious choice, I exercise my right to change the direction of the dream and decide, no, I'm going into the darkness, and I turn left.
现在我清楚地意识到,我开始沿着街道飞,看着坐在烛光下的咖啡馆里的人们,沿着街道走。细节非常生动。我看东西的时候会唱一首有趣的押韵歌曲。我继续飞得更远,并以强烈的向右飞行的倾向在城外停住。但是在一个有意识选择的时刻,我行使我的权利去改变梦想的方向并决定,不,我要进入黑暗,然后向左拐。
As I move forward in the darkness, the visual imagery disappears. For a very long while, I feel that I'm moving without any visual imagery - there's only a foggy dark-gray void. I keep moving in this visually empty space and begin to wonder if I am going to wake up. But suddenly a scene appears, bit by bit. First a bush, then a tree, then another tree. Soon the dream fleshes out nicely, and I stand, lucid, on a gently sloped hill, like something you'd see in Britain, with small leafy trees and lots of green grass. I notice that right next to me is a small bush with berries on it. I examine it closely.
当我在黑暗中前进时,视觉图像消失了。很长一段时间,我觉得自己在没有任何视觉图像的情况下移动——只有一个模糊的暗灰色空间。我一直在这个视觉空白的空间里移动,开始怀疑自己是否会醒来。但是突然一个场景出现了,一点一点。先是一丛灌木,然后是一棵树,然后是另一棵树。很快,这个梦充实得很好,我清晰地站在一个缓坡的小山上,就像你在英国看到的一样,有小而多叶的树和许多绿草。我注意到就在我旁边有一棵小灌木,上面有浆果。我仔细检查了一下。
Suddenly, I have the awkward realization that my body in bed is having a hard time breathing (even though I continue to see the lucid dream imagery of the green hills). While my conscious awareness is admiring a grassy spot in a lucid dream, I try to feel the breathing obstruction. With this bifocal awareness, I gently put some mental energy into making my physical head move up and away from the bed sheets or pillow while concentrating on remaining in the lucid dream. This seems to work. But finally, I decide to wake into physical reality and determine what is hampering my breathing.
突然,我尴尬地意识到,我躺在床上的身体呼吸困难(尽管我继续看到青山清晰的梦境)。当我的意识意识在清醒梦中欣赏一片草地时,我试着去感受呼吸的阻碍。有了这种双焦点意识,我轻轻地投入一些精神能量,让我的身体头部向上移动,远离床单或枕头,同时专注于保持在清醒梦里。这似乎行得通。但最后,我决定醒来进入物质现实,并确定是什么阻碍了我的呼吸。
With experience, you'll realize that sometimes you can be consciously dreaming and also aware of your physical body in bed. To stay in the lucid dream, you have to maintain your primary focus there, but, on occasion, you can check in on the physical body's awareness. In this example, when I woke, the bed sheet really was in my mouth!
有了经验,你会意识到有时你可以有意识地做梦,也可以意识到你的身体在床上。为了保持清醒的梦,你必须保持你的主要焦点在那里,但是,有时,你可以检查物理身体的意识。在这个例子中,当我醒来时,床单真的在我嘴里!
As we become more experienced with lucid dreaming, we discover how to maintain awareness even when the dream imagery has all disappeared. In learning how to lucid dream, we learn much more than how to manipulate dream objects and symbols; we learn the importance and proper use of conscious awareness
随着我们对清醒梦的体验越来越丰富,我们发现了如何保持意识,即使梦的意象已经全部消失。在学习如何清醒梦的过程中,我们学到的远不止如何操纵梦的对象和符号;我们了解觉知的重要性和正确使用。
2: 水手能控制住海洋吗?
3: 在精神空间中移动
4: 超越弗洛伊德的快乐原则
5: 独立代理人和无意识的声音
6: 情感基调和审查委员会
7: 体验意识之光
8: 连接到梦中隐藏的观察者
9: 清醒梦的第五阶段
第二部分: 心理学探索
10: 创造梦境的真实性
11: 梦幻人物的多样性
12: 搜寻信息
13: 治愈自己和他人
14: 通过心灵感应有意识地连接
15: 前瞻性、预知的清醒梦
16: 共同的清醒梦
17: 与死者互动
18: 互联宇宙中的统一自我
附录A:(略)
附录B:(略)
尾注:(略)
参考书籍:(略)