States of Awareness in Sleep & Dreams: Who Paints the Dreamscape?
with Benjamin Whitehurst, M.A.
DATE: Friday, April 12 @ 7pm

Can't be in Durham?
To watch a LIVE ONLINE BROADCAST of this event, register here.
An exploration of dreams, altered states of consciousness, and co-creation.
Similar to humankind's first steps on the moon less than a century ago, humans are currently reporting back consciously to researchers from within the REM dream state. In this presentation, Benjamin will synthesize current research on states of awareness in sleep and dreams with phenomenological first-hand accounts from long term meditators and those who experience out-of-the-body experiences, sleep paralysis, and other forms of conscious sleep on an ongoing basis. Drawing on these experiences and current research, he paints a picture of how the realities we traverse during sleep and dreams are co-created. From landscapes that immediately reflect our thoughts to visitations from loved ones and encounters with the extraordinary, we will consider the basic nature of the phenomena encountered during sleep and dreams.
Included in the presentation
a) Recent lucid dreaming research and descriptions of studies focused on technology-based induction of lucid dreams using electrodes; improvements in signaling technology and techniques between researchers and lucid dreamers interacting consciously within their dreamscape. What does the possibility of conscious communication to awake researchers while lucid during sleep imply about the nature of REM dream states?
b) Research on sleep paralysis, discussing both the biological aspects of why the body can't move during sleep in addition to widespread accounts of using sleep paralysis as a springboard into out-of-the-body states and lucid dreaming. We will focus on the questions this raises, for example, why are out-of-the-body experiences, sleep paralysis, and lucid dreaming experienced as three distinct states or phases of awareness? What do these accounts imply about the coherent realities one experiences in these states?

c) A number of books have been published over the past few years describing the first-hand accounts of long-time meditators and others who experience lucid dreaming, out-of-body-experiences and other forms of conscious sleep on an ongoing basis. Ben proposes to weave the experiences from these authors with my own experiences, the experiences of audience members, and also with current research on dreams, lucidity, and sleep paralysis to provide an evidence-based map of the nature of the phenomena experienced during sleep and dreams.
d) As a point of focus, Benjamin will provide examples of how to discern among phenomena that are reflections of our own mind (“thoughtforms”) and phenomena that appear to be part of a consensus-reality dreamscape, in which we might experience visitations, shared dreams, precognitions of physical-world events, and other phenomena not attributable to our own thoughts.

Biographical Information

Benjamin Whitehurst, M.A., is Founder of the Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild and North Carolina Regional Representative for the International Association for the Study of Dreams. In addition to serving as a skilled dreamwork facilitator and personal development consultant, Benjamin is a former Peace Corps volunteer, proficient in Spanish, Portuguese and Kaqchikel Mayan. Benjamin holds a Masters of Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University with a focus on Gestalt and Jungian dreamwork and a Certification in Integral Circling from the Integral Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Learn more about his work at www.DreamCircling.Com and www.NavigateChange.Org.
 
When
Friday, April 12, 2019
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
 
Location
The Episcopal Center at Duke University
505 Alexander Drive
Durham,, NC 27705
 
Contact
Call the Rhine at: 919-309-4600
or visit www.rhine.org to get more information and register for this special event.
 
Admission
General Admission $ 20.00
Members $ 15.00
Students & Senior Citizens  $ 10.00
 
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