Appendix A:
Resources
Books:
Heaven and Hell by Emanuel Swedenborg
(1758) Swedenborg Foundation, Inc. 1979 (Revised Dole Translation). (See
also The Presence of Other Worlds: The Findings of Emanuel
Swedenborg by Wilson Van Dusen Harper and Row, 1974.) The
mind-blowing account of a scientific genius, whose reports of what he
experienced in dreams, visions and OBEs still sets a standard that few
others have reached.
The Magus of Strovolos by Kyriakos
Markides, Arkana Books, 1985. A fascinating description of the teachings
and experiences of "Daskalos" (Dr. Stylianos Atteshlis),
a renowned mystic and healer who died in 1995. His account of the
afterlife has many similarities, and some differences, to that of
Emanuel Swedenborg. See also Homage to the Sun
and Fire in the Heart by the same author.
Through the Curtain by Viola Petitt Neal,
Ph.D., and Shafica Karagulla, M.D. DeVorss and Company, 1983. The
amazing account of an extraordinarily proficient lucid dreamer, who
could not only could recall her experiences in extraordinary detail, but
who could also dictate events out loud (to a tape recorder or monitor) while
sleeping. She attended many "night classes" on different
subjects in her dreams. This book consists in large part of a recounting
of what she learned.
The Ozawkie Book of the Dead: Alzheimer's isn’t
what you think it is! by Elmer Green, Ph.D. Three Volumes.
Philosophical Research Society, 2001. A world class scientist, the
"father of biofeedback", comes "out of the closet"
to reveal himself as a world class dreamer as well. In this
autobiography Dr. Green shares many of the fascinating dreams, lucid
dreams, paranormal dreams, and OBEs that guided and inspired him from
his earliest childhood.
Just for Fun Movies:
Always
(1989)
Ghost (1990)
Defending Your Life
(1991)
What Dreams May Come
(1998)
Waking Life
(2001)
Appendix B: Examples of
Evidential Psychopompic Lucid Dreams
General Note: I
use italics on text to indicate lucidity, and brackets [ ]
to indicate my awareness of the tentative nature of my identifications
while dreaming. E.g. [Bruno] means that although for practical purposes I
identify the dream entity as the non-physical self of the WPR (Waking
Physical Reality) Bruno, that I realize while dreaming
that I have made an assumption that requires verification. Also RWPR
means Return to Waking Physical Reality.
1. Psychopompic Lucid Dream
with [Bruno L.]
November 1, 1997, about 8:05
A.M. (Prelude: did a
lucid dream incubation to visit Bruno L. (10/26/1918 - 8/29/1997) at
about 6 AM) "I come to myself in a room setting, sitting at a
table with three old men. I realize that I dream, and remember my task -
to find Bruno. First I decide to look over the men. We sit at a circular
table, the men look in their 70’s and 80’s, old white-haired, one
balding another fat, all look feeble and flabby. None of them looks like
Bruno even when he died, and I expect him to look much younger and
healthier now, as several months have passed since then. The old men try
to talk to me, but I excuse myself, getting up, saying "Sorry to
break this (dream scene) up, but I really need to look for Bruno".
I stand up and call "Bruno L." a few times, and look over in a
corner to see [Bruno] sitting in a chair. He looks in his thirties or
forties, very lean and self-possessed. He has on an elegant dark gray
silk suit, a white shirt and a dark tie. He has a deep tan - very dark,
and looks almost like an American Indian. He also has on a pair of
glasses with black or very dark frames. Most odd of all he has a full
head of white hair, although his eyebrows have dark hair. At first
glance his hair looks straight, but when I look closely his hair looks
frizzy, like that of a black man, it sticks up about two inches from his
head and seems so unexpected it makes me question whether I’ve found Bruno. I say "Hi
Bruno! How do you do?" He replies "Good
to see you! I haven’t seen you around?" I look at him and say
"Well Bruno, you died!" [Bruno] immediately replies "No I
didn’t! I was reborn on three planes." He looks cool and
self-possessed. I tell him "Bruno, when I said you died I meant
physically. For me the word death implies rebirth". [Bruno] nods
and apologizes for "not being more demonstrative". I find it
hard to hear him, realize I begin to wake up. I try to move around to
prevent RWPR, and ask Bruno to try to speak more loudly, as I can’t
hear him. Despite my efforts the whole scene fades into a sort of white
light ... RWPR.
Comments: I related the dream
to Bruno’s son, Steven, who made the following interesting points:
1. During the period I knew
Bruno in waking physical reality (from about 1986) he had almost no
hair, no tan, physically a bit flabby. He wore wire rimmed glasses - for
presbyopia I assumed. I do not recall ever seeing him in a suit and tie
- almost always he wore a casual shirt and a bolo tie.
2. His family buried Bruno in a
dark gray silk suit with a dark red tie (unknown to me).
3. Bruno wore glasses for most
of his life, not just in later life - and in his 30’s and 40’s he wore glasses with black
frames.
4. For most of his adult life
Bruno had a very dark tan - something I did not know and had not seen.
5. Although Bruno began losing
his hair as a teenager, and certainly did not have a full head of hair
in his 30’s - he did have extremely curly/frizzy/kinky hair which he
used to wear in a sort of afro style. I had absolutely no clue about
this, as Bruno had lost all but a fringe of his hair when I met him, and
his son had straight dark hair - which I'd assumed that Bruno did also -
until I learned otherwise when I checked with Steven after this dream.
Psychopompic
Lucid Dream with [D. B.]
December 25, 2000 RWPR 6:58 AM.
"Driving in the dark with my truck, I can hardly see - something
that has happened to me in recent dreams. I believe that I probably
dream this, so I stop the truck, and use the "With an eagle’s
sight I see" chant to see if my vision improves. Overhead lighting
comes on after I've chanted, my vision improves markedly and I find
myself in a parking lot. [Shazam] - my dog - rides with me in the truck.
I get out to go exploring, and go into a nearby store that looks like it
sells health foods. I check to see if I dream by testing to see if I can
put my hand through a window without breaking it - and find that I can.
Now fully lucid, I remember my task to contact D. B. and call out
his name: "D--- B-------! D--- B-------!" a few times. I feel
close to waking up, when the same man shows up from a previous attempt I’d
made to contact D. B. in a lucid dream on December 20th - middle
sized, nondescript, balding. He looks sort of like an assistant coach or
hospital aide. I call out "D--- B-------!" one more time. The
man greets me in a friendly fashion, and says that he recognizes me,
"From when we met in heaven a few nights ago" he says. To
justify my visit to D. B., I tell this man about my friendship
with D. B. and of our work together. He smiles, but then tells me
he has some important things to tell me about D. B. before I visit
him - I believe him, but in trying to passively listen to him, I feeling
the pull of returning to physical reality again. I tell him I need to
stay active so that I can remain in dream reality, so please, just take
me to D. B.
He leads me through a series of
corridors, into a sort of dingy gym-hospital like basement. Metal walls
and doors. Finally I go through a metal door that has numbers on the
upper left, but going down, rather than across. (7 8 11 3 ?). I
push through into a dimly lit small room, - no windows, brown carpet,
sparely furnishings, a desk and a chair. It feels underground and
enclosed. (1) I hear [D. B.’s voice], but I can not see
him. I tell the aide that I can’t see [D. B.], and he says
"Don’t worry - you will." [D. B.] apparently dictates
his memories and observations into something that looks like an old
dictation machine - suitcase sized and brown, resting on the floor. (2)
He has either not noticed my arrival, or has chosen to ignore me. I
listen to him as he talks about "the wonder of calligraphy" (I
have to listen very carefully to make out the word) and how "people
do not fully appreciate (or understand) the mystery of it." (3)
I get a little tired of this - [D. B.] seems deliberately hiding
from me and ignoring me.
I notice [Shazam] at my feet,
who has apparently tagged along. As Shazam knew D. B., and as D.
B.
liked Shazam, I direct [Shazam] to "Find D---! Find D---!"
[Shazam] runs under the desk, a dark gray blanket flies up in the air (4),
and [D. B.] suddenly appears - he looks about fifty or so.
I humorously chide him a bit, saying, "You know in this place you
can choose your body - and you can do better than that!" He replies
something to the effect that "here I don’t get to keep my
body", implying that his current body has no value, precisely
because it does seem so impermanent, mental rather than physical, and
that he misses his physical body very much and does not consider the one
he has now as an acceptable substitute. However, he does change his
appearance, and now looks about 35 or so. I would hardly have recognized
him if I had not seen the picture of him in his early twenties with A.
K.
He has thick, black hair, and although clean shaven, the hair on his
head looks quite bushy. He looks much more built up then in the picture
I’d seen of him in his twenties where he looked somewhat thin, but
this [D. B.] body also looks pale, a bit out of shape, and has a
sullen expression. (5) [D. B.] tells me he has the task of
recording all of his memories. I think he feels glad to see me, but that
he also seems determined not to show it. The aide looks pleased that at
least I’ve stimulated [D. B.] enough to get him to stand up, and
to respond, moving out of his depression/brown study, and perhaps to
take a break from his obsessive focus on recording his memories. (6)
I try to cheer [D. B.] up, and talk with him about the work we
shared, and of an interview I (falsely) remember having recently done
with a yoga/Eastern philosophy magazine on the subject. (7) [D.
B.]
actually looks interested. I ask him if I can do anything for him -
perhaps something he wants me to relate to someone in physical reality?
I tell him that his wife E. B. does well, and ask him if he has
any specific message he’d like me to relay to her. He looks like he
might, but before he can answer, against my will I rapidly return to
waking physical reality."
Notes: (1 - 6 based on
information given to me by his wife, E. B., and unknown to me
(consciously at least) at the time of the dream):
1.
D. B. died on Oct. 12, 2000. He spent time during his Navy
days writing reports in cabins on ships, and even on a submarine - The
Nautilus. Perhaps the dream environment that I saw seems a recreation of
that environment - metal walls, metal doors, a dimly lit enclosed space
with no windows. He very much enjoyed the time he served in the Navy,
and had many fond memories of that period of his life.
2.
D. B. did indeed enjoy having and using dictation machines - brown
and suitcase sized. When he died, he had two machines like this in his
bedroom. In fact, he not only liked using his dictation machines, he
cherished them.
3.
D. B. did indeed have a keen and ongoing interest in calligraphy
that began in about 1995, would in fact buy books on calligraphy, every
two years or so, as well as calligraphy equipment, although he never
found the time to practice calligraphy himself..
4.
In his later years D. B. routinely wrapped himself up in a
favorite blue-gray blanket made of alpaca wool. Under dim lighting
conditions, the blanket simply looked gray.
5.
In his thirties, D. B. looked much as [D. B.] looked in the
dream - pale, a bit out of shape, and unhappy, the result of a miserable
marriage, smoking, and drinking too many martinis.
6.
Apparently this seemed a habit of D. B.'s while still living - he
would routinely make notes, or have his wife make notes of his thoughts
and observations, filling many notebooks and pieces of scrap paper.
Also, when D. B. focused on a task he would quite often do so to
the exclusion of all else until he had finished it.
7. A false memory. In physical
reality at least, I have not done any such interview.