I have never left the European continent before, I flew one time to Greece. So it was an enormous trip for me. It was very exiting to organize everything, the flight, the trip, rent a car, book a room for extra nights prior and after the camp, nearly everything by phone, fax and internet. But I can say, everything worked fine. Lucidity Institute, especially Keelin supported me very well, tons of thanks.
Why? I asked
myself, why all this effort. A good question. Why spend much money because
of just dreams? I was so curious to see some
Lucidity Institute Forum
members, whom I knew for a long time, "live", like Alan T. and Keelin.
I thought I would profit from meeting equal minded people, lucid dreamers.
I expected the whole
camp to be a good motivation to go deeper into the theory and
practice of lucid
dreaming.
And last, but not least, travelling to the other side of the world is a dream in itself.
So finally we
made it ! Then the first take off, a wonderful occasion for a
reality
check, because flying is a common
dream sign.
It was wonderful. Now I believed, that this Maui dream came true. The upper picture: Frankfurt airport (just to prove I've been there). The left picture: I'm actually flying westwards. That wasn't self - evident. In May I was laughing, but today this laughter gets stuck in my neck:
Imagine yourself being a security agent and your task is to prevent that any dangerous things or persons enter the plane to USA. Imagine, too, that your not very good in speaking German. Then imagine to meet me, a person wearing a tag with the words "Reallitty CH3CK". And imagine, that this person is speaking English as good, as you're speaking German.
But that isn't,
what makes you really nervous.This person presents you a strange electronic device, he calls "NovaDreamer ® " (what's that?) and then presents you a really odd story about being awake in dreams, that waking life is like a dream etc. Isn't that crazy?
How would you react? A longer conversation regarding dreaming, altered states of consciousness and some wise yogi in India did emerge. Felt like a cross - examination. I did the best I can and thought: "OK, Ralf, be honest." I thought, maybe this is the end of my journey. This security agent finally asked me: "How do you know, that you are not dreaming right now?" with a certain triumphant glance in his eyes. This was my chance: I did perform and explain him a reality check with the writing on my passport. He said something like: "OK. I don't have to understand this. Anything else to declare?" I showed him my Swiss army knife. He looked at it shortly, looked in my eyes one more time and quickly said: "OK." What do we learn? A NovaDreamer is more dangerous, than a knife. Man, I can say, that I've been not only somewhat, but muchwhat released. And proud, that I've done the check in this critical situation, a real critical state test (what's that?) . Now I was allowed to enter the plane.
The shot above is already from San
Francisco Airport.
Here
I met the first DreamCamp participant,
Hermine. To say it properly: She met me. Although I thought, someone would
notice me, because I wore the reality - check tag, she just intuitive thought,
I must be a Maui dreamer. We were both tired and slept when the sun did
finally set, already on the way to Maui. I was again amazed by the flying
experience, time for another reality check (I think I did more than twenty
this day).I didn't see much
of the Pacific ocean. I had the impression of flying above a carpet, no
fear, no matter how hard I imagined being far above an endless sea...
(The shot on the
right shows Hermine and Alan)
Arriving at Kahalui Airport was dreamlike: The gentle, warm breeze in the middle of the night and myself feeling somewhat drowsy. The way to Mana Le'a Gardens had to be found, but everything worked fine: The rented car was there and we drove through the night, catching glimpses of how wonderful this island may be. Finally arrived at the Gardens, which surely deserve this name. The next dreamer I met was my roommate Wilson, who welcomed me with a fresh and deep: "Welcome as a part of my dream!" After moving in our rooms, we enjoyed a bath in the hot whirlpool, relaxing beneath the palms, staring into the clear and starry sky. A dream came true...
That
is Wilson and me (two days later), seemingly discussing some serious affairs,
I think something about how stages of awareness and consciousness relate to
chakras, or how Sesame
Street relates
to revolutionary ideas, or something completely different...