Dreaming with the Senoi

September 22, 2003 3:22 PM

Dreaming is said to play a vital role in the lives of the Senoi tribe of Malaysia. While this story has it's detractors, Senoi-style lucid dreaming is one technique practiced by those looking to discover just what's going on inside their heads.
posted by moonbird (5 comments total)

Excellent post, Moonbird!
I've been practicing lucid dreaming for a couple years and it is an odd experience.
The benefits include enhanced control over nightmare dream, shaping the environment of my dreams, and a "safe" simulation to express myself and interact with the "people" in them.
It is still somewhat difficult as maintaining the dream construct involves a constant balance with my consciousness, often leading to less detail, I find the practice rewarding.

Thanks for my night's reading on the Senoi!!
posted by effer27 at 5:13 PM on September 22, 2003

This reminds me of something I read in High School.
posted by Grod at 6:17 PM on September 22, 2003

Groovy post...thanks!
posted by dejah420 at 7:10 PM on September 22, 2003

Carlos Castanada's Art of Dreaming is another source.
posted by stoneegg21 at 2:18 AM on September 23, 2003

Here's a thread on lucid dreaming that has a lot of liks to other lucidity-related stuff. I coulda sworn there was another post more recently, but couldn't find it.

Kilton Stewart's story is an intriguing and complex one, well served by your links, moonbird - apparently, when all is said and done, he did wildly exaggerate the importance and prevalence of lucid dreaming within the Senoi culture at large, but his promotion of it this way lent a buzz that led directly to Celia Green's seminal Lucid Dreams and Patricia Garfield's Creative Dreaming (not to mention, arguably, Castaneda's oeuvre), which led to LaBerge's proof of lucid dreams' reality - i.e. that they were not, in fact, paranormal phenomena, they're just something that didn't fit into our old version of reality.
posted by soyjoy at 7:54 AM on September 23, 2003