Might As Well Be Here Now

“A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming. During lucid dreaming, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment.” __________________________________________________ Look at your hands. This is such a simple sentence. Its simplicity might be why it works as a way to intentionally shift an ordinary dream into a lucid dream. A few days ago, I started re-reading a book by Carlos Castaneda called “The Art of Dreaming.” My good friend, Lloyd, gave me the book for Christmas. It was published in 1993 and I remember first reading it around that time. In the book the author describes a number of techniques to alter awareness through intentional dreaming. One of the techniques is to give yourself a simple instruction while awake to carry out in a dream. The recommended instruction is as simple as it gets. Look at your hands.  Since I first read this instruction in 19...

Carol and I spent the last week helping our son, Patrick, his fiancé, Lisa, and their dog, Bramble, move to Denver, Colorado from Raleigh, NC. We helped them drive their two cars and a 15-foot panel truck 1700 miles in three days. We stopped overnight in Louisville and then in Kansas City and then… just kept driving. The outside temperature was near zero for about half of the trip. The wind gusts in Kansas made it difficult to keep the panel truck upright and in the correct lane. Lisa had a bad cold and needed rest. By the end of the second day, Patrick was exhausted and feeling the stress of being the group leader and primary truck driver. Bramble and I were both disoriented and constipated. By Day Three Carol was absorbing some of the stress, too. Yet, if Patrick asked me to take the entire trip again, I would do it in a heartbeat. It actually was a privilege to witness Patrick and Lisa as they took a big risk and moved West. ________________________________________________...

Have you ever daydreamed through a Christian Christmas church service? I have daydreamed through many. Sometimes I daydream the sermon that I would like to be hearing instead of the one that is going on. The following fictional Christmas sermon is the result of one of those daydreams. This does not necessarily reflect what I believe. It is, however, a fictional perspective on Christmas that I would understand and respect. ________________________________________________________________________ Good morning and Merry Christmas brothers and sisters. Here we are again. Right now... on this beautiful morning where we have gathered to celebrate together the birth of Jesus Christ. Let’s begin today by taking a deep breath… and then releasing it very slowly. Let’s pause and notice the space we are sharing with each other right now…in this sacred moment. Before our Christmas celebration begins I want to share with you some unusual questions I am asking myself this year. Thi...

I recently watched a movie on Netflix called, Dying to Know . It is a documentary film narrated by Robert Redford about the lives of Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, aka, Richard Alpert. Much of the film is footage of a conversation between the two men that occurred a few months prior to Timothy Leary’s death. I think the movie does a great job of telling the story of how these two men influenced the culture in obvious and in subtle ways. I cannot describe how I felt watching the film. I first heard the story of Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, in 1971. Someone gave me a reel-to-reel audiotape and just said, “You will want to listen to this.” I listened to it and then listened to it again…and again. It was a three hour talk by Ram Dass describing his experience with Timothy Leary and psychedelic drugs that lead to his eventual pilgrimage to India. The audiotape preceded the soon-to-be released book, Be Here Now . While watching the movie, Dying to Know, I was swept with my...

When my son, Wes, was about 12 years old he decided to learn karate. This decision was a little surprising because Wes was not really interested in sports as a kid. In those days Wes was more interested in sulking around and listening to loud music in his bedroom. His favorite sport was shooting stuff, mostly tin cans, with a .22 rifle or a BB gun. I worried about Wes in those days because he seemed quietly angry. I assumed his quiet anger was related to the turmoil that his mother and I had created in his life. When he was six years old he watched us co-facilitate an extremely nasty divorce. As part of “the process” we paid lawyers to create a clumsy joint custody agreement and a chaotic back-and-forth schedule that had less to do with Wes’s needs for structure and stability and more to do with his parents’ mutual resentment and distrust.   In those turbulent days Wes put up with us and tried not to rock the boat any more than necessary.   But I think our foolishness m...