Hey Art - I liked your reply.
I have indeed read a large number of Carlos Castaneda books (although it was quite some time ago now). I don't personally think they were 100% factual, but that doesn't mean that they didn't make a big impression on me at the time - otherwise I wouldn't have read so many of them.
I've also read Jonathon Livingston Seagull, but not Illusions. Again - it was quite some time ago and that didn't make the same kind of philosophical impression on me, although I really liked reading it.
I think your experimentations in lucid dreaming are quite fascinating. My remarks about its possible inadequacies were actually a jab elsewhere rather than at you. Even if you just treat dreams as a projection of the subconscious mind, I could see consciously interacting with a stream of subconsciousness to have value.
It's also quite difficult to accomplish - you need quite a bit of conscious muscle to stop yourself being swept away back into a dream you can no longer control. Myself, I've only managed small periods of lucidity unfortunately - so have not explored the advantages of direct interaction with my subconscious in that way.
Actually Marisa probably has some cool thoughts on this as I would imagine the subconscious is very much her "playground" in her line of work.
Regards
Caleb
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