Meaning of a Dream

Copyright © Sirley Marques Bonham, PhD

By understanding the processes of the mind, by exploring new avenues, by understanding and being open to phenomena, and by persistently posing as a listener to the inner wisdom, we will certainly reach the searched for relationship with our unconscious that is progressive, productive, and evolutionary. The Kundalini phenomenon has given us a hint of what is to come!

From the religious practices of meditation, to the intense efforts in studies or problem solving, to the search for inspiration in creative challenges, to remote viewers, to the lucid dreamers and OBE explorers, HYPNAGOGIA – seems to be an important form of communication from the ‘unconscious' mind. We need to reach the unconscious mind through a specific method and its persistent practice, so as to develop a reliable two-way communication with the unconscious.

Do we know everything needed for a final picture of the process? I doubt we do. So, we need to keep exploring. We need to strive for what the ancient Greeks have been inviting: [Human Mind] know thyself ! – Our persistent search for knowledge and related experiences will build the needed wisdom.  

This article was written as a handout to complement the subject of a talk of the same title, sponsored by the Institute of Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies (INACS), Austin, TX. It was presented on May 8th, 2007, at Book People, Austin, Texas.

Following are suggestions of references, mostly related to what I have mentioned throughout the text. It is not my intention to be thorough, but to offer the reader a significant list of references on the subjects mentioned in the article.

The author's website – The Conscious Dreamer:

The Conscious Dreamer - where you will find the “protocol” or method I use, and which I have thoroughly tested. There you will also find articles of my own authorship, as well as articles by other authors that I consider relevant. One of them is the article titled – Kundalini phenomena, lucid dreams and out-of-body experiences, and the article with Jean Christophe Terrillon on sleep paralysis. [Cover-page drawing by Sirley Marques Bonham, 2007.]

Books and articles on the subject presented:

- Jean-Christophe Terrillon and Sirley Marques-Bonham (2001), Does Recurrent Isolated Sleep Paralysis Involve More than Cognitive Neurosciences? – Journal of Scientific Exploration 15, 97-123.

- Andreas Mavromatis (1987) – Hypnagogia: The Unique State of Consciousness between Wakefulness and Sleep, Routlege; Hypnagogia: The nature and function of the hypnagogic state, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Brunel University (UK), 1983.

- Simon J. Sherwood (2002) – Relationship Between the Hypnagogia/Hypnopompic States and Reports of Anomalous Experiences, The Journal of Parapsychology, 66, June 2002 (pp.127-150); and A comparison of the Features of Psychomanteum and Hypnagogia/Hypnopompic Experiences, International Journal of Parapsychology, 11, Number 2, 93-117 (2000).

- Bianca - Maria Aparecida de Oliveira (1985) – As Possibilidades do Infinito ( The Possibilities of the Infinite ), Editora Kopion

- Wilson Van Dusen (1972) – The presence of spirits in madness, Swedenborg Foundation; The Natural Depth in Man, Harper & Row (1972).

- Christina Grof and Stanislav Grof (1990) – The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crisis, Jeremy Tharcher.

- Joan Halifax (1979) – Shamanic Voices: A survey of visionary Narratives, Pantheon.

- Rick Strassmann (2001) – DMT – The Spirit Molecule, Park Street Press.

- Steve LaBerge (1980) – Lucid Dreaming: An Exploratory Study of consciousness During sleep, Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1980; Lucid Dreaming, J.P. Tarcher, 1985; with Howard Rheingold, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, Ballantine Books, 1990.

- Gilles Farcet (editor) (2001) – Radical Awakening: Cutting Through the Conditioned Mind – Dialogues with Stephen Jourdain, Inner Directions Pub.

- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (1998) – The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, Snow Lion Pub.

- Gopi Krishna (1993) – Living with Kundalini, Shambhala.

- Irina Tweedie (1986) – Daughter of Fire: A Diary of a Spiritual Training with a Sufi Master, Blue Dolphin.

- Darrel Irving (1995) – Serpent of Fire: A Modern View of Kundalini, Samuel Weiser.

- Philip St. Romain (1991) – Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality: A Pathway to Growth and Healing, Crossroad.

- Adam Crabtree (1985) – Multiple Man: Explorations in Possession and Multiple Personality, Collins Toronto ; (1997) – Trance Zero: The Psychology of Maximum Experience, St. Martin Press; (1993) – From Mesmer to Freud, Yale University Press.

- David J. Hufford (1982) – The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Tr aditions, University of Pennsylvania Press.

- Graham Hancock (2006) – Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, The Disinformation Company Press.

- Robert Bruce (1999) – Astral Dynamics: A NEW Approach to Out-of-Body Experiences, Hampton Roads; (2007) - Energy Work: Secrets of Spiritual Development and Healing, Hampton Roads; What is The NEW Energy Ways System? – article at http://www.astraldynamics.com/tutorials/

- Waldo Vieira (2002) – Projectiology: A Panorama of Experiences of the Consciousness Outside the Human Body, IIPC Publishers. Website: International Academy of Consciousness – http://iacworld.org/

- Patrick Huyghe (1993) – Dark Side of the Unknown: Psychiatrics and psychologists with advanced degrees are investigating the mysterious realm of Kundalini, UFOs, and ghosts, OMNI Magazine, September 1993.

- Elmer and Alice Green (1977) – Beyond Biofeedback, Delacorte Press; Elmer Green (2001) – The Ozawkie Book of the Dead: Alzheimer's isn't what you think it is!, Philosophical Research Society.

- Jim Robbins (2000) – A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback, Atlantic Monthly Press.

- Paul H. Smith (2005) – Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside StarGate – America's Espionage Program, published by Forge.

- Lyn Buchanan (2003) – The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as told by a “Psychic Spy” for the U.S. Military, Paraview Pocket Books.

- Joseph McMoneagle (2000) – Remote Viewing Secrets: A Handbook, Hampton Roads.

- St. John of the Cross (1990) – Dark Night of the Soul, Doubleday.

- Lawrence Le Shan (1974) – How to Meditate: A guide to Self-Discovery, Little and Brownman Company.

- Momir Maksimovic – personal communications on his methods (1998). His book – Na Putu Astralne Projekcije [The Mechanics of Astral Projection] (not officially translated to English), Beograd, 1995.

- Lon Milo Duquette (1999) – My Life with spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician, Samuel Weiser.

- Garret Porter and Patricia A. Norris (1985) – Why Me? Harnessing the Healing Power of the Human Spirit, Stillpoint publishing.

- Kyriacos C. Markides (1985) – The Magus of Strovolos: The Extraordinary World of a Spiritual Healer, Penguin and Arkana books. See also by the same author, (1987) Homage to the Sun: The Wisdom of the Magus of Strovolos, and (1990) Fire in the Heart: Healers, Sages, and Mystics, both published by Penguin and Arkana.

Sirley Marques Bonham is a PhD physicist by education, but due to her long time involvement with the subject of consciousness, she also considers herself somewhat of a neuroscientist. She was born in Brazil and first came to the US in 1986 to follow post-doctoral research with the Astrophysics Group at the University of Chicago and the NASA-financed Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia (IL), near Chicago. Her main scientific work was done in an extension of Einstein's unified field theory, but she has also worked in neuroscience research at the University of Texas at Austin, and in biophysics for the US Air Force in San Antonio, Texas. She has also taught at universities in Brazil, South Africa, and the US.

Dr. Bonham's involvement with the phenomenon of Consciousness, as viewed by neuroscience, started in 1992 through a group of scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, followed by a brief work with a group for research in neuroscience, specifically in the processes of memory and learning, at the University of Texas at Austin. Though she has learned about the paranormal through her father's interest in this area, it has been her practice to approach this science strongly rooted in a scientific perspective, which has influenced her personal self-experimentation with the phenomenon of awareness during sleep, represented by the modern approach to the so-called out-of-body experiences, and the recently developed techniques of lucid dreaming.

Dr. Bonham came to live in Austin, Texas, in 1993. She presently is a visiting scholar at the Center for Relativity at the University of Texas at Austin, and is a member and scientist of the Institute for Neurosciences and Consciousness Studies (INACS). Her writings can be accessed at her website: The Conscious Dreamer.