“Last night I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I do not know if I am a man who dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming I am a man.” – Lao Tzu
If you’ve listened to my podcast over at Steve’s site on Lucid Dreaming then you’ll know that I’m an accomplished lucid dreamer with some advanced skills. In the podcast, I alluded to something that I now would like to share.
It started during naps. About 40% of the time that I take a nap, I will have a lucid dream. Years ago I laid down to take a nap and something unusual happened. I had a dream that I woke up in a strange bed. I was in a loft with wooden floors and the bed I was lying in was pushed up against a wall with a small circular window. There was this sort of ladder going down into the main part of the small dwelling that I was in. I carefully climbed down the ladder. On a table in front of me I saw an amethyst wand. It was beautiful. And in the room was an old woman sitting in a rocking chair. She looked up at me and smiled and said, “Ah, I see you’re awake. Are you feeling better now?” Confused I asked her who she was and she laughed like I was asking her what color the sky is. She said, “Why don’t you take a walk and clear your head? You’ve been asleep for a long time.”
I was lucid. I knew I was Erin Pavlina, home asleep in my bed, but I was very conscious here in this dream. I decided to walk outside and check things out. Outside I discovered I was on some sort of boardwalk. Ocean was around three sides of me, and the little dwelling I’d come from was more like a lighthouse or something similarly small, that jutted out on this boardwalk. People were everywhere and it was daylight. The air had that certain feel to it … it was alive, it had energy. People smiled and seemed to be going on about their business.
I walked down the boardwalk and took note of all manner of places and things. I spent probably 20-30 minutes just walking around and getting the lay of the land. I didn’t speak to anyone but there were many friendly faces smiling at me.
I made my way back to my dwelling and walked inside. The old woman was cooking something on a little stove. I noticed the wand on the table and said, “Can I take a look at that?” She replied, “Well of course, silly. It’s yours after all.” Intrigued I walked up to the crystal wand and took it. There was some serious energy flowing through this thing. I told her I needed to get going and she said, “So soon? But you just got back. Please come back soon, honey.” I was thinking, “Er, yeah right. No problem,” but I didn’t say that. I went up the ladder, laid down in the bed with the crystal wand and “went to sleep.” I woke up in my real bed at home. I was just a little weirded out but not terribly so.
Okay now here is where the story gets interesting.
The next time I took a nap I woke up back in that same bed! It was night time and no one else seemed to be awake. I climbed down the ladder, went outside, saw a storm was brewing, lightning everywhere, and no one was around. I will say the air had a more sinister air to it but I really think that was just my own fears welling up. I walked around town again and recognized all the places I’d seen before. I went back to my “bed” and went to sleep. I woke up back in my real bed at home. Totally weirded out.
This pattern continued. Nearly every time I took a nap I found myself waking up in this strange place. It got to the point where I was now recognizing familiar faces and saying hi to them. I started meeting people whose names I could recall while I was there. I often passed by the little Mexican restaurant that was by the fire station and stop to chat with a few people eating on the veranda. I remember once getting a tour of the fire station. And one time I found a lovely park and sat and played with some children in the sand. I recall someone asking me if I liked working with children and I remember replying that I did.
I started calling this place “Naptown” because it was the little town I woke up in when I would take naps. One day I even discovered that I had acquired a job in Naptown. I was a daycare worker, watching kids while their parents worked.
Finally the day came where I decided to see how much my will could affect Naptown. The next time I found myself there, I quit my job. People fussed and asked me what I would do now and I was like, “Who cares? This is just a dream right? I can do anything I want.” They looked at me quizically like I’d grown horns or something. No one else in Naptown seemed to understand that they were just figments of my imagination.
I noticed that time continued on in Naptown even if I wasn’t there.
I tried a few other jobs in Naptown because I felt like I was supposed to work or something. But one day I quit my job as a waitress and decided to recreate myself as someone very rich. I remember commissioning someone to build me the mother of all mansions. The next time I visited Naptown I owned a beautiful mansion. It must have had about 15 bedrooms, it was 4 stories, and it had a dungeon and a moat (not sure why but it did). And so when I would “wake up in Naptown” now I was waking up in my own master retreat. I used to put things in drawers and when I would return they were still there!
Okay, if I haven’t lost you yet, check this out. After literally years of having these Naptown experiences, I started to enjoy my visits to Naptown. I was leading an entirely different life there. Whenever I was there I had full memory of my life there and everything that had passed during all my previous visits. I started making plans for my future in Naptown. I expanded on my mansion too. I invited certain people that I really liked in Naptown to come live in my mansion and take care of it while I was away. I started visiting Naptown at night too, instead of just during my naps.
Did the people in Naptown know about my other life? I told a few of them but they thought I was crazy. So I just kept it to myself and enjoyed my life there. When I’m in Naptown I feel like that is my real life. When I’m here, I feel like this is my real life. But my life here has way more continuity than my life in Naptown.
Some strange and dark things have happened in Naptown too. There is a dark energy that plagues Naptown at night, and everyone pretty much goes home after dark. There is a strange polarity there that I can’t quite explain. I’ve battled minions of this dark energy, and I’ve encountered Him twice but it was a standoff. He is totally intrigued by my presence and I am, frankly, terrified of his power. He keeps trying to get me to join him to rule Naptown. It’s so Darth Vader. My mansion is a magical fortress that he cannot penetrate, though he has tried many times. The people that I entrust with my mansion while I’m away are well trained in astral battle.
So what happened to the old woman who was with me when I first woke up? I recall going back to that dwelling at some point and she told me it was time for her to go. And I said, “Go? But you’ve got to tell me who you are and who I am and why I’m here and well, just everything!” And she smiled wisely and said, “I’m just a Watcher. My assignment was to watch over you until you came back and keep you safe. Now that you’re here and you remember why you’re here, it’s time for me to go.” And I said, “But I don’t know why I’m here and I don’t know what this place is. Tell me!” And she said, “You’re the light to His darkness. Now there is balance. Now there is hope.” She got into a little boat that moved silently through the water. I tried to follow her but I could not. I even took flight (it was a lucid dream after all!) and there was an impenetrable barrier at the edge of the ocean. I couldn’t follow her. But I flew up high enough to discover that Naptown is an island, and I explored every nook and cranny and kept hitting that strange barrier. It kind of felt like Naptown was in a snow globe.
I’ll be honest. I have NO idea what Naptown really is. An alternate reality? A parallel universe? A dream plane? A special spot on the astral plane? A snow globe on God’s shelf? Just the musings of an overactive imagination? I don’t know. But I know that time passes there even when I’m not there. I know I’ve got a rockin’ mansion in Naptown, some good friends, and some amazing magical swords. I’ve got an amethyst wand that has a treasured place in my mansion because I think that’s somehow involved in bringing me there. I have to say that although it’s a nice place to visit, I wouldn’t want to live there. 😉
Does anyone else have a special place they’ve visited in their dreams repeatedly? What do you think that is? Is it real? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
