One reader experienced a knock on the door of his apartment while he was dreaming on two occasions. He stated that he can tell the difference between a sound coming from inside dreaming and one coming from the "real" world. If fact, he claims sometimes he can keep both in sight. The "Short Story" is about the first occurrence.

On the second occurrence he didn't jump out of bed but rather listened to the knock to see where it was coming from. He doesn't get many visitors in his neck of the woods so he knew a knock when he had been Dreaming might be a reoccurrence. He states that the knock was as clear as any real knock on his apartment door except that it was continuous and a bit too fast. He was fully awake, but the knock kept going. As he listened it started to change. The sound of water flowing through a pipe in the building became superimposed on it and the knock transformed into the sound of water knocking as it goes through a pipe. Finally, even the water knock went away and only water flowing through a pipe could be heard. Here's the interesting part. Because the knock transformed into a normal sound and was "explainable" he felt at that point that it was nothing special. Then the next day he remembered that while the water sound was happening he could also see the water falling down through the pipe inside the walls. Thus while pondering the event and thinking there was nothing unusual going on he was actually in the middle of seeing. He says that all he could think about after that was that it had been the "Knock of the Spirit" but that he knew that was childish.

I had the opportunity to go on a business trip recently. I always like to do that because sleeping in a strange bed helps my Dreaming. As it turned out I succeeded in Dreaming only once on that trip. It was a good experience. I went to sleep and very shortly I found myself standing by the bed in the hotel room. I knew it was a dream. Instead of looking at my hands I felt drawn to my suitcase. I looked inside and saw a strange piece of glass with my clothes. I picked it up and realized that the lens had popped out of my glasses. That woke me up. I didn't think about it until I returned home. I wear contact lenses and I took them out. I got my glasses out of the suitcase. They were still in the carrying case. I took them out and put them on. I leaned over in the bathroom and the lens fell out of the glasses! My glasses had never broken before that and I didn't even know the lens could pop out like that. I think that the coldness of the luggage compartment must have loosened them and my Dreaming body knew that.

One reader says he's only managed to find his hands a few times. But he seems to have a knack for seeing himself asleep because he's done that twice. He says that he was very ill and sleeping in the back of a moving pickup truck. He said it was very frightening. He knows he did that as a child too.

When Dreaming andAstral planes collide.

I have this friend with the damndest talent for Dreaming. He practices TM and gets into Dreaming as a side effect. He's fully aware he's Dreaming and can do anything he wants but he's been taught it's bad so he won't experiment with it.

I struggle for months to get into Dreaming. One day I dreamed I was at a birthday party for my brother. I knew I was Dreaming and that someone special was at the party but I wasn't clear headed enough to look around. I gave my brother a gift very aware someone else was watching. I opened it for him. The box was empty. My brother smiled.

The next day my friend called me up and told me I had been in his dream about a birthday party for my brother. When I opened his gift, "love" floated out.

The Yogis have a concept of Astral planes. They even inherit how to get to them from their teachers. It sounds to me like a shared dream world of pure intent like the church Carlos inherited from the Death Defier. I tried to talk my friend into making one of our own but he didn't want to. Dreaming together was nothing special to him. He was after Cosmic Consciousness.

I've had some success getting into dreaming by taking advantage of

my own tense and guilty personality. What I do is leave all of the lights on and leave the TV on with the sound turned low and lie on my bed in the wrong position with my clothes on and try to go to sleep. I have to be tired to make it work but I often get into dreaming this way.

Source: Staff

I decided to try pressing pebbles between my fingers before sleep.

It didn't occur tome that finding the pebbles was going to be difficult until I actually started to look for them.

I ended up hunting in a river bed below the San Berriadino mountains.

The road to the river bed was bumpy and my truck thrashed about terribly. I decided to park up high and walk down.

In the river bed, a family was playing in the water. A mother and two small children stood waist deep in a large pool formed by a man-made dirt dam. In the distance, beautiful rain clouds loomed over the mountains.

Nearby, the family's father and his friend watched me nervously as I circled around staring intently at the river bed.

I walked further up river to put them at ease. Finding six perfect stones to fit the space between my fingers was not easy. After two hours I took the stones I had gathered and headed back . I was not satisfied. I wanted to stay longer, but I had an appointment to keep.

The men watched me leave and seemed to relax. The potential source of trouble was gone.

That night, when I examined the stones, I realized they weren't that bad.

The next day I learned that a flash flood had engulfed that family and the father was killed.

Source: Riverside, CA

Nagualist Newsletter and Open Forum / Issue 1 June/July 1994