ONEIRONAUTICS:

Oneirology is the study of dreams and how they relate to matters of the human psyche. The term stems from the Greek "Oneiron", meaning "dream" and the Greek "Logia", meaning "the study of". Thus the term "Oneironautics" can be similarly defined by that same "Oneiron" but adding "nautics", which means "to sail".

In other words, Oneironautics is dream-sailing.

I worked as a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University for many years, but my fascination was always the impact that dreams have on the human thought process. From something as simple as dreaming about pancakes and waking up craving them to far more complex matters like dreaming of insecurities we didn't know we had, our brains have a tendency to project processes that occur within them into the dreamspace as a way of highlighting them to the waking self. Did you dream of pancakes because you enjoyed them as a child and unconsciously crave the comfort of youth? Perhaps. Of course, there is also just a chance you went to bed hungry. Either way, your brain is gently tapping on the window and reminding you of something.

In the field of Oneirology, we work closely with patients to study their dream patterns and reflect on how that can assist them in their waking life. In psychology, we talk endlessly to our patients about the problems that exist in their life that they want to solve. In oneirology, we hope to help address the problems they might not even be aware exist.

In the field of Oneironautics, however, we push that a degree further. You have no doubt heard of lucid dreaming. A dreamer who can alter, shape and explore their dream in a conscious state. That is the foundation of Oneironautics: the exploration of dreams through the lucid state.

An important factor to consider is that the human brain activates areas of itself during a state of lucid dreaming that are not activated in normal sleep. This is something we study in oneironautics.

Sponteneous lucid dreaming is a rare occurence and thus researchers in the field of Oneironautics frequently struggle to find test subjects. It is not hard to see, then, why we tasked ourselves with finding ways to induce the lucid dreaming state. The obvious first attempts were through chemicals, often called Entheogens or occasionally "Oneirogens" when used for our specific purposes. Now, when I say chemicals I do not necessarily mean artificially created compounds. There are plenty of natural entheogens. For example, ayahuasca, psilocybin, and psychoactive amanita. Researchers also synthesized their own compounds to recreate the effects of these natural compounds, however in my experience the results were found quite lacking.

The natural compounds had their own sets of drawbacks, which I address in the page on this website titled "Entheogens".

Thus I set out to find ways of inducing a lucid dreaming state that did not require chemical alteration of the brain's function. I experimented with something called an "icaros", which was a specific song that resonates with a subject while sleeping and can induce a lucid state. The results were mediocre and underwhelming for the average patient, though there were the occasional subjects that found this method quite helpful.

The next was hypnotic suggestion and guided meditation. This has its own share of problems, though. The process was lengthy and inconsistent, some patients responded poorly to meditation, and the reliability of inducing the lucid state was questionable at best. However, when we did get results, when the patient did enter a lucid state through non-chemical means, the results were amazing.

We began to refer to this non-chemical, naturally induced state of lucid dreaming as "afflatus", after the latin phrase that can be translated to mean "inspiration". This state has been written about throughout countless civilizational histories, resulting in commonalities like "the third eye" cropping up in the spiritual mythos.

Jung's Collective Unconscious

If I had to cite an inspiration for the theory of my work, I would cite Carl Gustav Jung. His writing, and the expansion of his writing done by Edward F. Edinger, have been central to the concepts that I worked with not only when treating patients in the therapeutic setting but in my theoretical work as well.

Jung's concept of the Collective Unconscious is the single most key concept to understanding our work in oneironautics and honestly, anyone with even a passing interest in dreams should make themselves as familiar with it as they can.

The simplest way to explain the concept of the collective unconscious is that we, as Mankind, have a shared awareness, a stock and storage of impulses, instincts, memories, and ideas, that we as individuals are not aware of. For example, when you see the many myths and fables that are passed down through all forms of disparate and distant cultures, the same key concepts keep appearing. More than five different ancient cultures have a Sisyphus figure. Countless cultures that had no contact with one another all have their own Zeus. How? There is simply an invisible essence that we all inherently understand without needing to be taught it. Over centuries and millenia, we have honed it, refined it, shaped it and pared pieces of it away without ever doing so consciously.

But in Oneironautics, we take that one step further. I ask your patience on this next part because it has been met with a lot of skepticism from my fellow scientists. Just bear with me. Ask yourself this: Why is it that you can dream about people you've never met? About objects you didn't know existed? My hypothesis is that when we dream, we tap into that endless ocean of Mankind. That Collective Unconscious. We pull from it and without even knowing, we shape it into dreams. It takes our memories, our thoughts, and paints pictures for us with them. But occasionally, our memories are blended with memories we've never encountered before. And that is how we dream of the unknown. That is how we share aspects of ourselves with all Mankind.

The Egregore

There is a concept in western esotericism that is known as the Egregore. I say western esotericism because that is the circle that most talks about it today, but the concept does date back to Ancient Greece (and probably long before that, too). An egregore refers to a thoughtform or non-physical entity that is given shape by the conscious or unconscious thoughts, instincts, and emotions of a distinct group of people. In other words, the belief is that they can be created intentionally or unintentionally. I think this concept meshes quite well with Jung's Collective Unconscious. We as Mankind collectively dream and fuel egregores that we are not even aware of.

Now, in that same western esotericism, there is also a belief that egregores are fuelled and empowered by belief, sacrifice, and ritual. That sounds ominous but rituals can be as simple as basic unconscious habits. And as for belief, well, once one believes something exists, it can be impossible to go back. Even just becoming aware of something conceptually can be enough to make you dream about it, even if you don't believe there is any truth to what you're reading. And that might be all that's required.

For an example of what I'm referring to, take simple concepts like crystal balls, mediums, tea leaf readings and tarot cards. Many people don't believe there is any foundation of truth behind those concepts. But many people do believe them. And the people who are skeptical are aware of the people who do believe, even if they think those people are naive or stupid. And so no matter what one believes, anyone who is even aware of a concept like tarot, holds the capacity to dream about it being legitimate. And thus the collective unconscious is still fuelled.

I am aware that all of this sounds a tad preposterous. I've been told so by many of my peers, believe me. But I have seen proof of this in person. Before I get to that, however, let me quickly detail what the average Oneironautic study looks like. I'll be quick, I promise.

The Scientific Process

In our research the process was as follows: the afflatus state was induced, the brain was studied during the afflatus state, the patient was gently encouraged to awaken, then a post-afflatus interview was conducted. We repeated that process countless time and it had tried and true results. Over the course of two years, we made leaps and bounds in terms of neural imaging and understand of how the brain responds to the lucid state. But we couldn't help but notice other effects, too.

Patients that were in the Afflatus state were supposed to be in control. They were supposed to be able to shape their dreams to their own whim. But on certain occasions, we noticed that factors of the dreams would still be decided for our patients, as if influenced by something external to the patient themselves.

For example, we had a patient who tried to shape their dreamscape into that of their childhood home. However, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't recreate the pictures framed on the wall accurately. It was always a strange family they didn't recognize. I had the patient describe the incorrect portraits as best they could. Then, after the study concluded, I checked in on the address the patient had given us so that we could check the accuracy of their afflatus creation. The family that was now living in their childhood home matched the incorrect portraits to a near perfect extent. But the patient had never met the new owners. Never even seen them. How then, did they accurately dictate their exact appearances to us in their post-afflatus interview?

We came to refer to unexplainable events like these, events where third-party meddling was clear, as 'Outer Incidents'.

Outer Incidents

An Outer Incident can be identified and classified by the following trademarks:

Many Outer Incidents have been harmless (even occasionally beneficial) to the patient. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

For two case study examples of Outer Incidents, please read my paper on Apotropaics in the Academics section of this webzone.