Personal Information for Charles Hanshaw prospero@bigwig.net
I am thirty-five years old, British by birth and a Londoner
by adoption. (London is the only place I know where you can "become a
native". It gets into your blood somehow.) I work as a Tarot reader and
motorcycle courier in varying proportions. I have a partner, Sue, who has graced
my life these last eight years. My personal space is shared with a dog of
assorted breeds, an albino rat and an assortment of spirit guides.
In the rare moments when I am not working, eating or sleeping
I enjoy music (most types but Gil Scott-Heron deserves special mention), reading
(mostly psychic/spiritual stuff these days) and working on my website http://www.bigwig.net/prospero
Dream Experiences
I first got seriously interested in the potential of lucid
dreams in 1994. I was making a lot of life changes and wanted to extend my
knowledge of the archetypal forces represented in the Tarot. I had already
experienced powerful insights from pathworking, a process of guided imagery
popular in the Western Mystery Tradition. I wanted to "turbocharge"
the experience, as it were, by pathworking in dreams.
Once I started trying to induce lucid dreams a whole host of
fresh ideas came to me about how the lucid state could be used for pleasure,
personal growth and (dare I say the word?) profit. Here was a new world waiting
to be explored, a place where a talented amateur could make as much difference
as a professional scientist.
Unfortunately this opening-up coincided with my joining the
ranks of the self-employed, which meant that I was trying to induce lucidity
under almost exactly the wrong conditions. After two years I still had plenty of
hopes and ideas but had only managed to achieve lucidity twice, both for a few
seconds before waking. One was purely by my own efforts. The other was brought
about by a friend from her own lucid dream, so I know from direct experience
that at least part of the goal of this group is possible. However, mounting
stress at work and an erratic sleep pattern meant that the whole business of
working with dreams got shelved for a while.
Then the surprise happened. I had started to read about dreams again and to
try to keep a dream journal but had not attempted any serious work. I had gone
to sleep early on the night in question, around 10 pm. The telephone woke me at
3 am and I spent about half an hour talking to the caller. Going back to bed wide
awake, I decided to read for a while, choosing The Dream Machine by Keith
Hearne. Then I went to sleep at around 4 am. By 8 am I had had two lucid dreams
of reasonable duration, had experienced dream flying (at least as much fun as
skiing or motorcycling, both of which I love) and was going to be late for work!
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