When I was in my early 30s I became fascinated with the subject of dreams.  At the time I was totally caught up in just about anything that had to do with the paranormal. I was a product of my generation, the sixties, I was a seeker, I was studying the world’s religions; I was also partaking of the world’s fads and anything to do with the exploration of the inner mind.

For two years I read every book I could get my hands on about dreams. All in all it was one of the most beneficial subjects I dabbled in because I used many of the things I learned in my dream study for the rest of my life. I took a course in dream study, self organized, which has influenced me deeply for all these years.

I learned that, as I mentioned last night, we all have 4-5 dreams every night in the course of an eight hour sleep – one about every 90 minutes. I learned about rapid eye movements (REM) and how an observer could tell when the subject was dreaming by these sure signs. I learned that sleep moves like a roller coaster through the night, from sub-consciousness plunging down into unconsciousness (deep sleep) and then back up the hill again to sub-consciousness in that 90 minute span. Then the cycle is repeated.

I learned that soon after the roller coaster reaches the bottom of the hill and turns to start back up, we begin to dream and have these REM. Wake me up the minute I start these REM over and over again for a couple of weeks, in other words, refuse to let me dream and I’ll begin to go crazy in an all too short a time.

Without this dream state expression, the subconscious mind is unexpressed and somehow this expression, through our dreams, keeps us even, keeps us more centered in consciousness.

For a year I practiced a ritual every morning. I was taught to remember every dream I had the night before and it got so that I could do it every day. Here’s how I did it.

I chose 4 key moments upon waking to focus on the dreams of the past night. The first was when I first woke up. Before I allowed any other thoughts to breeze through my mind I would ask myself, “What did you dream last night?” I kept a notebook and pencil right by my bed to log the short descriptions of the dreams – my Dream Book.

Also if I were to awaken from a dream at any time in the middle of the night, I would quickly write it down and go back to sleep. If you don’t write them down they are immediately forgotten. They are experiences of the sub-conscious, not the conscious. The conscious mind will not remember the dream because the conscious mind did not have the dream, so you have to tell the conscious mind the dream in writing so that then it can remember.

The second key was when I sat up in bed and swung my feet over the side to the floor. I would pause before standing and ask myself again, “What did you dream last night?” If another dream came to me, I would write it down.

The third key was when I stuck the toothbrush in my mouth. Again, I would look myself in the eye in the mirror and ask, “What did you dream last night?” Many a morning that year I would stand excitedly, toothbrush in mouth as I jotted down a remembered dream.

The 4th key was when I put my socks on.

Within a couple of weeks I would be able to remember all 5 dreams of the previous night. Within a couple of weeks after attaining that and practicing that every day, I dropped keys 2-4 because when I would wake up each morning, all 5 dreams would come pouring through my mind immediately like a news reel. I would then record all 5 in my trusty little Dream Book.

Why did I do this? Because being conscious of my dreams taught me so much about myself, was so valuable to my growth, was my shrink, my practitioner, my self consciousness. Every morning I faced my life issues because every night my sub-conscious rehearsed these issues in the form of my dreams.

It got so that after waking, I would lie in bed for a couple of hours each morning remembering, then writing down and finally analyzing these dreams and applying what I learned to my conscious life. By the time I would get out of bed in the morning I had often conquered the world because I had conquered myself. I rose with more confidence, clearer vision, and a better sense of Pete.

Essentially, I see it now as a form, not only of self analysis, but also as a form of prayer. This was not some heebie-jeebie faddish thing I was doing. I kept God in the mix each of these mornings and thought deeply about man and his relationship to God and as I thought more and more about it all, my dreams became ‘heavier’, clearer, more cogent, less obtuse, more evocative of my conscious existence.

My conscious mind and my sub-conscious mind began to actually connect and work together. I see it now as a form of awareness. I’m clear now that it was a form of what I might call “lower awareness”. It was awareness of the human condition and it certainly had its spiritual connections, but it was definitely an exploration of the mortal me. It had its great value in my early years.

Because of it, I’ve pretty much always been able to work out my own problems. When confronted with the concept of a shrink or some form of analysis to help me work out my stresses and mental issues, I always ask, “Why?”  I’ve already got a method that works for me.

This is not, by the way, at all a substitute for prayer. It’s always been my belief to study all things and take the good and the true that I can from each philosophy, each culture, each religion. This was a method of consciousness exploration that was very stimulating to me. From it, I learned a great deal about how I ticked, how I organized thought, where my pitfalls were.

I was able to clean up much of my thinking and clear out my attic of many bad habits and much disorganized thought.  It was a great growth period in my life.

“Why did I stop?” you might ask. Ah, the Tom Mix serial moment returns once again. For that exciting continuation of our story, you’ll have to tune in again tomorrow for Part 4. Tomorrow we’ll step off the edge into the void.

Tomorrow: Astral Projection.

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For more inspirational thoughts, music and ideas from Peter Link,  please join us at Watchfire Music.