Hemi-Sync® Journal 1999-3 (Summer)

--- PAGE 1 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC IN THE DREAM TEMPLE Journa Vol. XVII Summer 1999 by Joan Lundgren, PhD with Shirley Newton Bliley A Research and Educational Publication of The Monroe Institute Joan Lundgren, PhD, director, Interdimensional Insight Institute, Walnut Creek, California, is a transpersonal psychotherapist, licensed mar- riage and family counselor, researcher, and writer. She brings her background in business, psychology, and spirituality together to counsel, teach, and write. She has used Hemi-Sync tapes to conduct individual research on a variety of topics, including the psychological and spiritual development of women during midlife and beyond. Dr. Lundgren has been a member of The Monroe Institute Professional Division since 1996. She can be reached at (925) 930-9268 or by e-mail at: jlundgren@msn.com CONNECTING THE DOTS The first night of the 1998 Professional Seminas, Laurie Montoe guided us through a process of visioning, then drawing our visions. As I drew, it reminded me of lucid dreaming: being in a dream ye knowing that you are dreaming. I was drawing the vision is y g: ‘: and living it at the same time. This is often my experience at The Monroe Institute. There are all these little “dots” of information floating around, seemingly unconnected. Then, a conversation here, a sentence there, a brief IN THIS ISSUE glance, and suddenly, the dots connect. The pattern becomes obvious. aw the Julia Set crop circle across the road from Stonehenge in England. Next flashed a When asking for my vision, I immediately Joan Lundgren has been a dream aficionado picture of a huge saucer-shaped ship above the crop circle. The words since childhood. Her personal fascination resulted that accompanied the vision were, “A spaceship without walls.” ivan exgitaite aenahiviny to dhexemure of hea _ My “visioning” happened quickly, and as I waited for the others : to finish, my mind turned to an actual experience at the Stonehenge realities, both as a therapist and as a workshop crop circle. It was the summer of 1996, I was sitting in one of the smaller circles with the intention of remote viewing to pick up infor- mation about the formation of the Julia Set. As I settled into a com- into play, as she was called upon to discern the fortable position, preparing to enter the remote viewing state of con- sciousness, I suddenly found myself in Focus 27. My initial reaction was irritation. I had not come all the way to England to experience of the Hemi-Sync Dream Temple. what I could easily do at home. I received what I considered to be minimal information about the circle and left in disappointment. leader. In 1998, this extensive experience came nuances of dreams within dreams—as a priestess However, what had subjectively seemed like only a few minutes in the ircle had actually been an hour and a half! That night, our research group had special permi midnight meditation in Stonehenge. The man who wi asked to do it. Inside ion to doa to lead the meditation got sick at the last minute, and I was the ancient circle of stones, I walked the circumference, touching 804/361-1 \ 1000 The hMAnnerne Inctiti ite f Roherte Mountain Road. Faber, VA 2: --- PAGE 2 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC® JOURNAL each stone as I passed. I was enveloped in a timeless, familiar peace. I realized, “This is home—like Focus 27.” Without planning or preparation, the words of the meditation moved through me natu- rally and easily, as though I had done it many times before. Only our group had permission to be there, but from out of nowhere, two strangers joined us. In the space of the circle, there were no bound- aries, no past, no future, only the present. As the ceremony conclud- ed, the two “strangers” disappeared. As often happens at the Institute, each person in the ceremonial circle was meant to be there at that precise time. And so, the dots keep connecting. When I participated in the first EXPLORATION 27, the expanded space of Focus 27 felt per- fect. In Focus 27, time had the same flavor as the hour and a half in the crop circle and the meditation in Stonehenge. In each experience, I felt “at home.” In fact, in the expanded Focus 27 space, when instructions were given to return, I reacted with an adamant “NO WAY!” I jerked off my headphones, intending to enjoy and explore That is the sacred space that I seek to evoke when serving as a guide into the Dream Temple. The Dream Temple is a healing temple, and in my experience, it is an extended Focus 27 space. on my own. It was exquisite! Then I heard Bob's voice saying, very gently, “Joan, you might want to consider going back with the group.” I panicked. With a thump, I was back in my body, searching desperately for the headphones. With pounding heart, I rejoined the group, but the hunger to return to that space persisted. The visioning with Laurie connected all those dots: the picture I drew of the Julia Set crop circle and the flying saucer, the Stonehenge meditation, Focus 27, and my Overnight in Dreamland workshop. That is the sacred space that I seek to evoke when serving as a guide into the Dream Temple. The Dream Temple is a healing temple, and in my experience, it is an extended Focus 27 space. A DREAM MESSAGE After my last visit to The Monroe Institute, I saw no reason to return. Then I had a dream: Iam leading a dream group in the debriefing room at the Nancy Penn Center. Everyone looks like regular people, but they are actually an ancient group of shamans who have come together one more time to celebrate and prepare. I called Shirley Bliley and asked if it would be appropriate to do a shamanic dream group at the Professional Seminar. The answer was yes, but we would have to use David Francis Hall. This did not match my dream, but I was flexible. On arriving for the conference, Tlearned that the shamanic dreaming trip would be in the debriefing room after all, BUILDING THE DREAM TEMPLE Since childhood, dreams have held important information for me. As a psychotherapist, exploring dream symbology was an inte- gral part of my work, but never the primary focus. After my last trip to the Institute, the idea for a dreamland all-nighter blossomed. Each morning, I awoke with another piece of the puzzle retrieved through my dreams. As it took shape, I saw it as an opportunity for people to work on dreams immediately—rather than a day, a week, or even years later. I planned to invite a group of people to stay all night with me, do ninety-minute sleep cycles throughout the night, and process at the end of each cycle. I called Mark Certo, audio engineer at the Institute, to see if they could make a special Hemi-Sync ninety-minute sleep tape. I could not believe my luck. Such a thing already existed—the TimeOut CD. Mark enthusiastically helped me map out a cus- tomized program for my purposes. Track 1, Awake, takes the listen- er into light sleep. Track 2 is guidance into deep sleep. We skipped to Track 5, which is extended deep sleep without verbal guidance. Then we returned to Track 4 (extended light sleep), which is non- verbal. From extended light sleep, we moved to Track 6, which leads the sleeper into REM (rapid eye movement/dreaming) sleep. I intended to waken the group at the end of the REM sleep sequences for processing. THE DREAMERS When I do a workshop for the first time, I invite the most knowledgeable people I can find, because they will usually tear the program apart, expose weak spots, and give me a lot of infor- mation quickly. My hand-picked participants were people who had done a lot of dream work, came from different belief systems about how dreaming works, did not need to be educated about concepts such as interdimensional travel, and were excited about the prospect of exploring. Only one person was familiar with Hemi- Sync. The group was all women, with an age range of early thirties through seventy. THE FORMAT The plan was to start at eight o'clock in the evening and end at nine o'clock the next morning. However, at nine they were really on a roll, so more time was obviously needed. They had all arrived early, with their sleeping bags and whatever they needed to sleep on the floor. I intentionally kept them all in one room. My Hemi-Sync equipment is set up for ten people, each with their own volume-con- trolled headphones. They all gave written permission to tape the workshop and to use the information for research. The first issue that came up was the fear of snoring. One woman had canceled at the last minute because she was embarrassed about her loud snoring. I polled the group for their preferences on handling snoring. The consensus was for me to nudge the snorer. That did not work because one participant could only take about three breaths --- PAGE 3 (OCR) --- Summer 1999 before snoring heavily, and the nudging interfered with her process. In future overnighters, I decided to discuss snoring and give a suggestion ahead of time that the sound of snoring (their own and others’!) would take them easily into their appropriate space. Participants had been asked to bring recent dreams with them. I shared mine from the previous night: Ihave a new car. 1am amazed because not only can I drive it on land, I can fly it in the air and take it into the water. I am so excited, I want to show it to everybody. The symbolism of this dream was obvious to the women. I had a new vehicle (Hemi-Sync tapes) for traveling into different dimensions and I was excited about sharing it with them. Although these women were seasoned dream workers, for most this was their first time to attempt to dream in a group. Their dreams held clues to their thoughts and expectations about attending the overnighter. One woman dreamed that she and a group of women went to my office, which was high in a skyscraper. She had to go to the bathroom, which was in the basement, so she took an elevator down. Coming back up, she could not find my office and ended up in many different places. We spent time exploring personal beliefs and favorite ways of working with dreams. By then, they were settled in and ready to start. I chose HUMAN PLUS Sweet Dreams for the first tape, stopping it where the instructions say, “and now go into deep sleep.” This allowed them to get their bodies comfortable, become accustomed to the headphones, and have the experience of a voice guiding them into sleep. Learning the H-PLUS Function Command—Plus- Theme, Dream, Sleep—gave them a cue to use at home. We also used the Command before each dream set to reaffirm the intention to remember dreams. ACTUALITY VERSUS REALITY It took an enormous amount of food and caffeine-free drinks to supply the energy for the overnighter. I thought I had prepared enough food for an army, but watched in amazement as it disap- peared into the bottomless pit of dreamland. The first formal dream sequence of ninety minutes started with Track 1 (TimeOut CD), which demonstrates the Hemi-Sync sound, introduces the Security Repository Box, and provides a whole-body guided relaxation. On the succeeding sets, I used Track 8 instead because it abbreviates those techniques. had imagined how the sequence would go: they would lie down on their “blankies,” put on their headphones, go into a deep sleep, and have wonderful dreams. I would wake them at just the perfect second and we would process their dreams and images, with many tremendous insights. HAS!!! Instead, they were anxious, restless, moved around a lot, and—when they did sleep—it was a snoring contest. I tiptoed ner- vously among them in the dim light, furtively looking for any sem- blance of REM sleep. They later shared that during the first round they wondered (as did I) exactly what they were doing there. They could not get “into it” and certainly were not having life-changing dreams, At the end of the first ninety minutes, they got up and ate a lot. The second ninety-minute cycle was much better. The edge was