The Crossroads
Experiment
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The
Crossroads is an investigation into
shared dreaming. Maybe investigation would be too strong a word... Playful artistic experiment in the limits of
As lucid
dreamers know full well lucidity is one of the most amazing experiences
you could have in your life but by its very nature it is a solitary
experience. What would make this extra special if you could share
this seemingly internal experience with others! Could this be
possible? |
My own shared
dream ~ I wouldn't have even contemplated
constructing this site if I didn't suspect that shared dreams
were possible. I know of many accounts on internet sites around
the world that detail shared dreaming accounts, some descriptions
have more proof than others. However it is only my own first
hand experience of a shared dream that convinced me it was possible.
If like me, you are a bit of a skeptic you'll never fully believe
what you read until you achieve it yourself. I'll tell you about
my shared dream and you can choose to believe it or not, I can't
prove it, I can just let you read it.
The
dream ~ I shared a dream with my housemate,
a friend of about 5 years. We never talked about dreams and
she didn't know of my interest in them. I wasn't going to tell
her about my dream in which she had featured. It was she that
told me "I had a really strange dream last night and you
were in it" as we walked out the door to the pub the next
day. However it was only when she started recalling the dream
that my jaw literally dropped.
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She had dreamed of
waking in the middle of the night and feeling fear because of
a presence of something in her room. She got up from her
bed and rushed down stairs to my room, she banged on
the door and shouted my name but the door was locked
and she had to return to bed.
In my dream I was
woken from sleep in the middle of the night by her banging
on my door and shouting my name. This is where our
dreams diverge as she found my door locked where as I answered
the door. My dream continued with her saying that there was a
presence in her room and could I go and check the room.
I went upstairs and in the corner of the room sat in a chair was
the ghost/spirit of an old woman, although the spirit didn't speak
I knew it wasn't harmful so I went downstairs to tell my housemate.
Then I woke (middle of the night 3-4am) my heart was racing and
it took a long time to get back to sleep. Neither of us were lucid
at the time, but my dream was on the verge and very vivid.
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My
doubts and thoughts ~ Even
though I have had what seemed like a very convincing shared
dream with my housemate many would say that all "we"
experienced was a very rare coincidence. I have one foot in
this camp myself as I'd like to think of myself as a rational
questioning person who can see the irrationality of sharing
the same dream as another person.
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However
my rational side has major reasons to doubt itself over
the years and this is source of my feeling that shared dreaming
could be just as much science fact as lucid dreaming itself.
That doubt springs from the "many" odd events
that have dogged my life from as far back as I can remember.
In the last three years I've tried actively to find rational
explanations to them. |
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Many like my childhood
trance like states and visions I can now explain having learnt
about lucid states similar to WILDs (waking initiated lucid dreams).
Others have no explanation except for the fact they are coincidence
and only seem very bizarre because the odds are so long. These
are not the coincidence's that are to do with meeting a childhood
friend whilst treking through the remote jungels of the amazon
or anything. They do have a connection with either harm to me
or others or something that you'd class as spiritual.
I'm not about to go
into all the details about all the experiences just to say that
they fall into two major camps as far as I can tell. I'm
not going to detail them all, just say that if everything I've
personally experienced that seems unexplained is merely just the
result of chance (no matter how remote) then I have been lucky
to witness a string of chance events that when combined would
make some seriously large odds.
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Believe me when
I say I have gone through them with a fine tooth comb, taken
out those that are to do with a lucid state. Also if I take
away the experiences that can not be explained by chance alone
I still have a awful lot of experiences that only "rational"
explanation is coincidence. The odds of these coincidences on
their own, are, in some cases vast, but it is the cumulative
odds over the 31 years of my life that shakes my faith in the
science that attempts to explain them away, the odds for the
whole chain of events is perhaps "too" large, however
still, somedays I'm a skeptic and some days I believe.
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Science
proves the unproveable ~ Although
I think that vast swathes of the so called paranormal is nothing
but wishful thinking and pyschobabble, I can't disagree with good
science. Infact if I believe in anything then I would tend to
lean toward the position that eventually science may be able to
probe far enough to reveal that what we call the paranormal might
have some basis in a understandable universe.
Rupert Sheldrake is one an extreamly few members of the scientific community to actually apply scientific rigor into psi in the modern age. |
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There is a fiery
debate raging on the edge of paranormal and scientific reserch,
even Princeton's results are under threat. Some feel that the
very essence of the paranormal is unable to be probed by scientific
study (just as certain natural quantum states are also unable
to be studied directly). Others have not given up hope, maybe
the collaboration by skeptic scientist Richard Wiseman and believer
researcher Marilyn Schlitz's work into the experimenter
effect will finally lay some conclusive proof one way or
the other at sciences door.
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Many researchers have
moved beyond scientifically acceptable proof and have concluded
that science itself by its very definition is too inflexible to
explain psi problems. Is the universe is linked to its sentient
inhabitants in a fabric that science had upto now only been considered
as pure fiction? The debate is very complex see the links at the
bottom of this page for more info. I can recommend Surfing through
Hyperspace" ~ by Clifford A. Pickover, The universe in a nutshell
~ by Stephen Hawking as good contemporary science primers. Also
check out this PDF Science
of the subjective.pdf located
at this
page for a good starting point on the whole issue.
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The
Crossroads setup~
Without any scientific basis (as I've already pointed out no
basis is as yet accepted) I'd like to suggest that what happens
when you LD/AP "together" is not a meeting
in a real tangible dream/astral world but the minds way of integrating
(making some sense) of the information from sleeping telepathy
between two or more minds.
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This
is very much like the operating system of a computer (Windows,
Mac OS, Linux) that translates the complex computer system into
something that a human can understand and use. The Crossroads
is like that OS it gives a space where that telepathy can be given
"tangible" form, a meeting space that the mind can accept
and recreate in dream "reality". Its hard to say what
might cause such a link between people who might in everyday life
not have met?
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At
the Crossroads website I've decided to focus on "desire",
making the Crossroads dream space as exciting and interesting
a place to visit as possible and also to focus on "weight
of numbers", attempting to make the site as well known
as possible so that all lucid dreamers are aware of its existence
and would hopefully choose to pay us a visit.
"Weight
of numbers" argues
that if 2 or more people have the same intent (reaching the
Crossroads) at the same time then it might be more likely that
the process by which shared dreaming is possible is given chance
to act. This does however mean that such chance is going to
rely on a lot of people having the Crossroads in their heads
when asleep all at the same time.
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Mayan
Dreamspell BLUE Solar STORM tshirt
Buy
at the Crossroads store served
by CafeExpress
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The
odds against this are very high, just look at the visitor counter
on the above, the number represents the people reading this site
when you are. Imagine that these people are dreamers, it might be
rare for them to dream of the Crossroads (say 2% of the time) and
only half of those might be lucid at the time. I'm sure you can
see the problem, lucid dreaming needs to be a far more wide spread
activity.
Hopefully I can make the site far more popular when all the images
are redone and there is far more of interest to do and experience
when you reach the Crossroads. (See the news
page). Until then hope to see you there :¬) |
How
do I confirm a shared dream? ~
Many people say ask for the other persons name or phone number,
well phone numbers are very difficult to remember in waking
life (well they are for me) and it will be doubly difficult
in a lucid dream. Another thing is people really don't like
giving out personal numbers and names, remember although nothing
can ever harm you in a dream, waking reality is a different
thing.
1. Say to
the other dreamer if they have never heard of the Lucid Crossroads
(you might not be there at the time) that you know a way to
confirm if you both are having a shared dream.
2. You need
to think up a code word and be anything but make it unusual
and easy to remember like "Crunchy Cat"
3. Ask the
other dreamer to remember the name "Lucid Crossroads,"
when they wake to search for this name on the net and there
will be instructions on what to do.
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I
had a shared dream and I have a code. What now?
Email me the code
and if I get another email with the same code I'll ask you both
what you want to do next (put you in touch with each other etc).
Although I could be
wrong I suspect you don't have to be asleep and dreaming at the
same time as the other person so you might get confirmation sometime
after your own dream. I would actually expect the two dreamers
to have a shared dream on the same night but if its like other
unexplained human abilities distance and time have no meaning.
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The dream characters
of Clem and Glad may also be able to pass on any messages to
other travelers. The log book is another good way of leaving
your mark at the Crossroads, the book can be found on the reception
desk. You can also read the log book to see who has been there
before you.
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Shared
dreaming on the net ~ Here
are some other resources for shared dreaming.
Mutual
dreaming ~ description of shared dreaming experience. I
will get more links to shared dreams just give it time.
A
shared dream ~ description of a shared dream experience.
Mutual
Lucid projects ~ Linda Lane Magallón, M.B.A., is a founder
of ASD and author and these are experiences from her site.
Fishbowl
forum ~
The dream linking section has a project called "The Dream
Wheel" for members to share dreams together.
Dreamofpeace
~ Proposes visits to places in the world (in dream time) like
the Pyramids of Egypt or Antarctica etc.
Sea
Life Forum ~ active forum shared lucid dreaming and the Mayan
dreamspell, its also the home of the Lucid Crossroads and discussion
about that is held in the Dreamspace section.
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Have
you experienced a shared dream?
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Ok
you just want to learn how! This sections tells you how and explains
the methods like W.I.L.D and reality checks. |
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Way
way before the term lucid dreaming was coined people have been "leaving"
their bodies and traveling the universe and beyond. Is it just a
very high lucid dream? Learn about this controversial subject that
exists on the fringes of science and study. |
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The
Lucid Crossroads Guides and Sleep Paralysis.
This page details the phenomenon known as old hag and also teaches
you how to turn this nightmare to your advantage in order to summon
a Lucid Crossroads guide. |
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This
section is used to explain a little of the science and history
behind lucid dreaming as well as talking about dream guides and
what they are.
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