Imagine sitting in a room with a few hundred others, all of you relaxed, all of you flow-writing like mad. All you can hear is the scratch of pens. All you can see is your own inner dream imagery morphing into surprising things as you try to capture it on paper. This is a creativity technique I developed, Lucid Writing, so called because it’s like a waking version of lucid dreaming, where dream imagery is focused on and guided while in a light trance. It’s a highly creative state, and a great way of connecting with original ideas, metaphors and visions as they emerge from your unconscious.

Sound like fun? Then come and join me in London, November 9^th-10^th, at the Gateways of the Mind immersive event, along with some of the world’s leading dream practitioners.

Here are the details; hope to see you there!

Clare

 An Immersive Exploration Of Lucid Dreaming & Out Of Body Experiences

Bringing together leading global teachers, authors and practitioners for dialogues, discussions, meditations, practicals, music, art…. Gateways is an experience!

Featuring:

William Buhlman, leading expert in out of body experiences.

Stanley Krippner PhD – humanist psychologist presenting ‘Shamanic dreaming from around the world’

Tim Freke, author of ‘The Mystery Experience’ presenting Lucid Living

Michael Winn, Taoist Master presenting ‘Taoist Dream Yoga’

Clare Johnson PhD, Author of Breathing in Colour and Dreamrunner, presenting ‘Creative Lucid Dreaming’

Martin Duffy, Shamanism Ireland, presenting ‘Shamanic Dreaming of the British Isles’

Luigi Sciambarella of the Monroe Institute presenting Altered States & Belief Systems

Charlie Morley, Gateways Host and London’s finest lucid dreaming teacher.

Check the website for full presentation & speaker info plus tickets.

www.archetypeevents.com/gateways-london

It’s the start of a new year and time for a change – although I’m still writing my third novel, I’ve also recently begun a non-fiction book! After the IASD dream conference in Bern it suddenly dawned on me that it was time to write the book I’ve been building towards ever since I did my PhD on lucid dreaming and the creative writing process. So there it is – I’ve started this book on the connection between dreams and creativity, and so far it is such fun to write, ideas flying towards me from every corner and a strong sense of enthusiasm and purpose which reassures me that I’m doing the right thing (I hope!).

I’m at the stage where I need reports of dreams which have specifically led to creativity. If you think you can help, and would like to see your own creative dreaming experience in print (you can be anonymous or not, as you wish), please get in touch. You can write to me here, or email me on phdcasestudies@hotmail.com with ‘Dreams and Creativity’ in the subject line and include a brief description of your dream and the way it helped you creatively. I’ll be in touch – thanks!

Your dream might be lucid or non-lucid, you might consider it an out-of-body experience (OBE) or a hypnogogic/hypnopompic experience (where vivid imagery, noises, or sensations such as dropping or swooping occur either as you drift off to sleep or just before you wake up), it could take place in the ‘void’ or ‘black winds’ of lucid dreaming, or in the state of sleepwalking… The important thing is that your dream has led to some form of creativity in the waking state, such as an idea for a new project, a new way of understanding a problem or situation, the improvement of a skill such as swimming or ballet, physical or psychological healing, or the creation of a piece of artwork, poetry, or music.

Clare

I’ve just attended a conference all about lucid dreaming, where I presented a workshop called ‘Wake up your artist! Lucid dreaming as a creative tool’. Fascinating conversations took place on subjects such as whether the ability to visualise goes hand-in-glove with artistic talent, how lucid dreaming can inspire original ideas for plot and characters, and how transforming dream images into art is a way of bringing a dreamlike lucidity into our lives.

Now that the conference is over, I’ve lost my voice – an odd outcome since the whole thing took place online, in literal silence (although it felt very noisy and lively): we had to write if we wanted to be heard. Maybe my voice giving out is a message that I need to be quiet now and look inward, after months of hurtling through the days with ‘to do’ lists as long as my arms and legs put together, due to moving house. Now, warmed by all the lovely dreamtalk, and forced into silence, I have begun to write stream-of-consciousness novel scenes; it’s all spilling out, characters are acquiring names and personalities, and the major events of the novel are jostling up against each other, waiting for me to record them and then work out how the hell they all interconnect.

Here’s a link to the IASD Psiberdreaming conference, which is still open for the next two weeks on a read-only basis.