Dreaming Realities: A Spiritual System to Create Inner Alignment Through Dreams
By M. Edward Borasky

This is the finest book for beginners in dreaming practices that I have yet found. The authors, John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn, are therapists and highly respected trainers of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Ericksonian hypnosis. They also teach courses on PhotoReading™ and the use of trance for rapid learning. As a result of this background, Dreaming Realities features exquisitely crafted language and is designed for rapid learning. There are seven chapters and seven Dreamtime Interludes.

Chapter 1, "Dreaming Our Selves, Each with a Mind of Its Own," introduces the three minds: the conscious mind, the unconscious mind and higher conscious mind. Overdurf and Silverthorn believe that "all problems result from a lack of rapport and alignment among the three minds." All chapters close with both a conscious and an unconscious review.

Here is where the payoff from the authors' training in NLP, PhotoReadingTM and Ericksonian hypnotherapy is greatest. The conscious reviews are written for the conscious mind. They are very much like the summary you would find at the end of a chapter of any textbook. And the unconscious reviews are written for the unconscious mind. They help the reader integrate the material; moreover, the unconscious reviews actually help the reader experience the concepts.

Chapter 2, "Sleep: The Chemistry Between the Mechanics and Their Dreams," is a thorough background on what is known about sleep and dreams. The key point amid all the research is that we use sleep and dreams to integrate and consolidate the learning we record in the waking state.

Chapter 3, "Quantumfying Dreaming: Consciousness and the Other Stuff of Dreaming," is the most speculative and is likely to be controversial in some circles. As masters of metaphor, though, Overdurf and Silverthorn manage to create a strong link between the bizarre world of physics and the bizarre world of dreams. The main point is, in their words, "Reality is holographic. At the deepest level we are all one."

Chapter 4, "Incubation: Growing Intention in the Quantum Field," begins with a beautiful metaphor about growing plants. This chapter begins the "how-to" section of the book, building upon the theory from the first three chapters. The authors start by defining the three elements of " The Breakfast of Masters": intention, energy and the ego meter. In the words of the authors, " You're not doing it by yourself," and "No matter what you think you are, you are always more than that." Then dream incubation - the process of consciously intending the type or function of a dream you want to have - is introduced. The basic technique is a meditation known as the Dream Meditation.

Chapter 5, "Interpreting Dreaming Realities: Creating Order From Chaos," describes the authors' own Dreamind Interpretation System. Although it is based on other systems of dream interpretation, it depends on the dreamer for the complete process of interpretation. There is no dream dictionary; there are no universal archetypes or symbols. All you need is the dream itself!

Personally, I think the Dreamind Interpretation System is the best part of an outstanding work! It has been useful beyond measure to me over the brief period I've worked with it. I don't recall seeing anything like it elsewhere; in my opinion it is a major contribution to the dreamwork field.

Chapter 6, "Lucidity: The Dream That Wakes You Up," combines some elements of Carlos Castaneda's work with the well-known results of Stephen LaBerge on lucid dreaming. There are also some unique contributions from Overdurf and Silverthorn, stemming from their work in hypnosis.

The final chapter, Chapter 7, is titled "Beyond Lucidity: Finding the ' I ' in Light." From the first paragraph: "Throughout this book, we've outlined a dream system whose purpose is to create alignment among the conscious, unconscious and higher conscious minds. What we never asked explicitly was, 'For what higher purpose would we want to become proficient at any one of these techniques or, for that matter, achieve alignment among the three minds?'"

After answering this question, the authors introduce a Dzogchen Buddhist practice called "The Practice of the Natural Light." There is also a reference to native Hawaiian dream practices. Dreamwork is a well-established part of many spiritual traditions; although Overdurf and Silverthorn draw mainly from Hawaiian Huna, Tibetan Dzogchen and Carlos Castaneda, you can find dreaming practices in Australian aboriginal culture, many
Native American traditions and even Ashkenazic Judaism.

The Dreamtime Interludes are designed to augment the text. Interlude 1 is the authors' version of reality testing. Interludes 2, 3 and 4 describe techniques for working with the Chevreul pendulum. Interlude 5 is a meditation for getting to know your higher conscious mind. Interlude 6 is the Dreaming Meditation, designed to take you into an altered state similar to REM sleep. The final interlude, Interlude 7, is a Hawaiian dreamtime chant.

In summary, this book belongs on the shelf of everyone even casually interested in dreamwork. Even if you've been doing dreamwork for a long time, you're likely to find something new in it. If you're a beginner, this is the only book you'll need to get you started; because of the way it's organized, you should come up to speed very quickly.