Dream work has always been a part of my spiritual practice and life long before I had an established practice. I have experienced a wide variety of dream places, spaces, and phenomena from sleep paralysis to astral travel and even lucid dreaming. However, there remains one dream practice that seems to fascinate people over all the others: dream walking. In this article, I answer the question, “what is a dreamwalker” in detail. I also provide guidelines for the practice, and a ritual to get you in the proper space to perform this work. First, What is a Dreamwalker? Dream walking occurs when one person enters the dream space (the consciousness) of another individual. When this is done subconsciously and without control, it’s called shared dreaming. However, when it’s done consciously with control, it is known as dream walking. I’ve experienced shared dreaming for many years. It started when I was around 16. I knew that I was shared dreaming when people told me they’d dreamt of me the night before. And described to me the exact same dream I had while asleep.
When I was in my mid 20’s I was introduced to dream walking. The practice of purposefully leaving my dream space and visiting the dream space of someone else’s consciousness. This is still a kind of shared dream, but it has some distinct differences than the experience of a shared dream.
Shared Dreaming vs. Dream Walking
The first and most distinguishable difference is that to dream walk, before sleep you set a conscious intention to walk into a particular person’s consciousness while they are asleep. The second is – while in the other person’s consciousness, you gain control over the space. You can change the scenery and control your actions and responses, as well as visit the otherworld. To be a dreamwalker is like astral traveling into a specific person’s mind and performing lucid dreaming functions. For more information what lucid dreaming is, check out this article.
Guidelines for Dreamwalkers
I began dream walking through the use of spell work and ritual, which I will give instructions for a little later in this article. But first, we need to talk about the ethics and precautions of being a dreamwalker. Remember these are my personal guidelines. If you have different ethics, remember you have to live with the consequences, positive or negative.
Guideline #1:
You should NEVER dream walk into someone else’s dreams unless you have their expressed permission. You are literally walking into someone’s head. To do this without permission is the ultimate invasion of privacy. This is not a shared dream, and it doesn’t happen by accident. Dream walking is a conscious decision that should never be made without prior consent. It is also a deeply personal and intimate experience (you’re letting someone into your most vulnerable space). That being said, I recommend doing this with those you are close to in your waking life. Especially if you are the kind of person that doesn’t easily let people in.
Guideline #2:
Check your motives. Why do you want to dream walk with this person? If you follow guideline 1, this shouldn’t give you too much pause. But if you didn’t gain expressed permission and are entering into someone’s mind for the ill intent like causing confusion, mind control, or causing nightmares, stop and think about the consequences. Weigh the risk vs. reward. Remember, you will be in the dream space too and you won’t be the only one that can control the dream.
Guideline #3:
Mental health is of the utmost importance. Dream walking is the work of the mind. If you or the person you wish to dream walk with suffers from mental health issues, keep this guideline in the forefront of your mind. In my experience, walking into the dreams of others who are suffering from depression, grief, trauma, or other mental illnesses is generally not a good idea. The mind is already dealing with an imbalance it’s trying to correct. You, or the other person, may travel to the otherworld and wish to stay (I’ve actually had this happen, it caused sleep paralysis, took a whole lot of energy, and it was NOT fun).
If you’ve assessed the risks and still wish to continue, you both should have an idea of what the dream scape will look and feel like prior to entry. This way the experience is less jarring to the mind.
Guideline #4:
One person should take the roll of the dream anchor. A dream anchor in dream walking is the person who initiates the end of the session. This person is the anchor between the dream space and reality. You should know which of you will be the anchor before dream walking and, if it’s you, you should know how to end the dream walk. Anchors typically find using a specific hand gesture or phrase to bring them out of the dream works great.
Ok, you’ve listened to the guidelines and are eager to try out dream walking. Great! The ritual below is the one that started me on the dreamwalker’s journey. It’s really spectacular and it always works for me. When you first start, you both may only remember bits and pieces. However, the more you do it, the more practice you get and the more clearly your dream recall will become.
Simply Sandman: A Dreamwalker’s Ritual
You will need:
2 red chime candles
White string
An album of music
Something to carve your candles with
Dreaming Tea
Instructions:
Brew your dreaming tea an hour to an hour and a half before you enter dream space. There are heaps of dreaming teas out there. But a simple recipe I love is valerian root, chamomile, mugwort, and honey.
Carve your name and any other information you want into your candle. This signifies your identity within the ethers and allows the other person’s consciousness to more easily access your dreaming stream once asleep.
Take your white string/thread and tie it to the wick of each candle. This ties your consciousness together in the dream space. This binding only lasts while in dream space. However, it does bind you to the person for a period of time (this is why express permission and knowing the person is super important).
Set up your soundtrack. Get your Spotify ready or whatever audio device you choose to use. This music should be played on both sides of the dream walking. This allows your sleeping brain to remain on the frequency of the music together. I have dream walked to Evanescence, Enya, and Fleetwood Mac. The music is up to you but it should be something melodic and meditative to the both of you.
Bring your tea into your bedroom, pour a cup and start sipping. Light the center of the string between the two candles in the center.
Meditate on the candle flames while sipping your tea. You may need only one cup, but I require 2 (if they’re small) or one large cup.
Once the tea is finished, the candles should be half to three-quarters finished (chime candles have a 30-minute burn time which is why they’re recommended for this dream walking ritual). Start your music. This should be synchronized between you and your dreamwalker-partner so the music is exactly the same in both places. Also, set your music on repeat.
Continue meditating on the candle flames until the candles burn out. Once the flames are out, your tea will have kicked in and you’re ready for bed.
Once you wake from your dream walk, record everything you saw, felt, and experienced so you can compare notes with your dreamwalking partner.
In Conclusion
As you gain experience dream walking you will find that the need to initiate the experience through ritual lessens. Nowadays when I want to dream walk, I usually just use a dream tea to help me get there if anything at all, provided my dream partner is also adept. Dream walking is like any other spiritual discipline; it takes time and practice. Believe it or not there is another level to dream walking that I’ll have to cover in another article – dream rescue – where adept dream walkers can rescue others from nightmares, insomnia, sleep paralysis and other parasomnia disturbances.
source:
https://otherworldlyoracle.com/dreamwalkers/