Thread: A Practical Introduction to Dream Cartography

Yeah. I guess so. I just don't feel like creating my dream world with rectangles really represents my dream world very well.

I just don't know what to say then.

lol.

I also remembered dreams From mapping just a little bit out. 3 places to be exact.
John11 you should just map out the main places. Maybe in the excel thing, put a x2 or whatever number next to each place. Anything above say, 5, put onto the map. I've got TONNES of places that I've been to in dreams that I'll probably never visit again, no point putting them on there.

Originally Posted by tommo

Hm I think this is very interesting.
Where did you get this idea from? Is it yours or did you read it somewhere?

It is rather well-known method on Russian dreamscene from where this incarnation of this tech is originated. I say "incarnation" because it seems that the the guys who invented it actually rediscovered and adapted for common folk the method used by ancient mystics and shamans. Siberian shamans used to map "Lower worlds", and a lot of mythological descriptions of the world fit into "general layout" of dream map, and similarity of some elements is also striking. I bet one may earn doctorate in the psychology field if s/he make serious research on this topic like Laberge did with lucid dreaming .

Ok first, are you going to explain the 'lower level' soon? It sounds interesting. Why do drug users, mystics, sick people find these? Is it a more deep level or something?

Well, actually you are asking questions which no one have definitive answers to.

They are "deeper" (just remember that it is brain's interpretation of something which it shows us like more deep level of your dream map) but as for what is it - there may be numerous explanations. Typical skeptic one may state that dream world is projection of our psyche or inner self (currently this explanation is the most close to my perception of the issue).

If you like mystic approach you may take shaman one - they considered those lower worlds as actual "parallel" worlds. Guys who developed Dream Cartography often compared dream world with computer programms and had rather unique views on what dreams are and how they behave. The real problem is that there is no scientific explanation what dreams are, so we are left to mercy of our beliefs.

Still the method itself is very interesting. fun, yields interesting results and allows to look at one's dreams from another standpoint (than used by classical DJ).

Second, I would suggest, since you are using vector, (and I would recommend it for everyone else) just use one map, not multiple. With vector you can zoom in (theoretically) infinitely. Therefore you would start off with a general map; probably of your home town, then the places you visit around there. Then once you get more dreams after starting this endeavour you can just go in and add extra areas within here that you've found. Then you could have separate bits on the same picture like on a game map if you find a place which isn't connected to your home town yet. Eventually you might connect it up, but maybe not.

Thanks for a nice advice!

Originally Posted by John11

Yeah. I guess so. I just don't feel like creating my dream world with rectangles really represents my dream world very well.

Just you have not to be writer for keeping DJ, you do not really have to be artist to draw maps (though if one can draw dreamp places it will not hurt either).

I haven't been here, but I prefere drawing scenes and not a map because I don't travel too much in my dreams other than home to school and school to home. And when i do it I have to walk 'cause I always miss my bus XD

I really like this idea though I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep it up. Nevertheless this has inspired me to try to explore more, rather than just follow the plot or find someone/something.

This should be interesting, I usually don't change location all that much unless the plot makes me. It's time for some random walks!

I've mapped out my dream locations before as well. Very helpful in navigating or becoming lucid if you memorize the map (hey, I know where I am! Shazam! Lucid!). Though my map was more like a bunch of different scenes drawn in bubbles connected by lines and not a real map you would use in the waking world.

Aslo, things break down a bit if you do things like teleport etc... then the adventure is to find the connections between the place you teleport to in relation to the places you already know.

Phantasos! I love this guide. Thank you for writing this!

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

yeah I got your PM

have to wait and see if this generates enough interest to necessitate adding a sub topic

How much interest would you call " enough interest "?

you know something freaky that my brother and i stumbled upon one day? we have almost the same exact dream worlds.we found this out one day last year when i was bored. we live on a dirt road and in the summer i like to take a stick and draw into the dirt(its bigger than paper that's why...). anyways one day i was drawing my dream worlds/places and my brother comes up and asks what i'm doing.after i answer he just stares while i keep drawing and then he gets another stick and starts drawing.i tell him to stop cuz i don't want him ruining it and he says he just drew a lake i forgot. when i draw i always start with buildings so i hadn't started drawing the geographical features yet and i wondered how he knew there was a lake there.i asked him if i had told him about that dream and he said no and said that i was drawing crap out of his dreams and it was creeping him out.i argued that it was from my dreams and told him to go away.he started to draw again and i got mad and started yelling at him to get away and stop ruining my drawing but he came over to where i was drawing and at that point i was drawing our school so he finished it and started to draw the tower which is next to it in the dream world.i wondered how he knew it was there so i told him to go down the road some and start drawing and work back towards me to see if everything matched up.we were out there for a couple hours and the result was about a quarter of our dream worlds in high detail.it astounded me to realize most things matched with only a few blurs and odd buildings/places here and there.the map started near our house and slowly worked its way to the other end of the map at this giant temple which neither of us has gotten to yet but only seen twice each.this temple stretched off the road on either side and was surrounded by this absolutely massive series of fortified walls and trenches.at the south end toward our house is the most glorious gate and roadway stretching for miles back into the more populated, busy dreamworlds by our house.the scale of the dream worlds themselves are as massive, at least, as our universe.the temple is almost incomprehensible.

so this got us thinking...what if people all had the same dream map but just experience different parts of it and the goal in all of our dreams is the temple?
imagine how enormous the dreamworld must be...

Originally Posted by ray

the temple is almost incomprehensible.

The temple you have seen is rather common element of the dream map. It is called The Tower and connects different levels of the map. Probably it is archetypical. Ancient dreamers (due to lack of high buildings or less urban mindset) often saw it like giant tree - for example, Iggdrasil in Icelandic mythology or Tree of Life in Kabbalah.

I've only seen a tower in one dream, and it was collapsing from the top. I was running down to the bottom with my friend, saw our English teacher, and stopped to chat. This was before I joined DV. I don't see many stereotypical dream places.

Are you guys twins?

Originally Posted by ray

you know something freaky that my brother and i stumbled upon one day? etc..

I'd guess that if you both grew up in the same area and generally think about things in a similar way then your subconscious would poduce the same result (dream world) from the input (real world). This being my entirley material spiritless heathen view.

That said I like the "one big world" idea, and hell anything's possible.

Also you mentioned the huge scale, my dream world seems to contain a lot of places that correspond to real places (they look completley different but I "know" they're the same while I'm dreaming) that are always much larger than their real life counterparts.

Yeah that knowing thing is weird. You can't explain it in language. I get it a fair bit when you see a person, they look completely different from how they do IRL but you just know it's them. I wonder why that happens....

Just like you know what you're suppose to do and not to do... It is weird. Maybe since it comes from us, we know a bit of it? ...

no, were not twins,we are actually four years apart
bu5hman, your theory makes sense, but our dreamworlds do seem a little too similar. oh wells i don't expect to find an answer but maybe i'll get lucky

Today I have a big insight on what this Big Building is.

As I already wrote earlier, mythological models of world are actually may be true... just that they represent not a real world but a dreamworld which was "ordered" either by special practice, or just due to a good recall and a decent life longevity. One of my hobbies is North mythogy, and one happening revived my interest to lucid dreaming is that I was browsing an archive of Russian site from which Dream Cartography originated (i.e. its modern incarnation), and one thing striked me immediately:

The general layout of the dream map was similar to Norse mythological model of the world.

One of the most interesting and crucial element is the Big Building. It is also known like Iggdrasil, World Tree, Tree of Life etc. It is usually connect different worlds - from lower to higher. So it was obvious it is very archetypical thing, no wonder it is featured on a lot of maps.

One thing (and it is also very mysterious) is that ancient dreamers had this tree in the center or near the center. On the modern maps it is usually in the north, we can say - near the center of the northern half of the map. I hope, you understand me .

So, this thing fascinated me very much. What is it or projection of what is it? (If we take that dreamworld is projection of some phenomenon)

And today a hypothesis on what it is was born!

The Big Building is a projection of the corpus callosum into the one's dream world.

The corpus callosum is a structure of the mammalian brain in the longitudinal fissure that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres. It also facilitates communication between the two hemispheres. It is the largest white matter structure in the brain, consisting of 200-250 million contralateral axonal projections. It is a wide, flat bundle of axons beneath the cortex. Much of the inter-hemispheric communication in the brain is conducted across the corpus callosum.

Think about it, like Iggdrasil in Norse mythology and Tree of Life in kabbalah which connect different worlds, corpus callosum connects different parts of the brain. And like Iggdrasil which go from the Asgard (Heaven) down to the Helheim (Hell), corpus callosum spans across all the brain, connecting different parts .

The reason why it moved from the center to north is the next. North in Icelandic mythology was associated with gods which brings order, and south - with Jotuns which symbolized chaos. In my opinion, moving of the Big Building to the north is that our left hemisphere which is responsible for logic, rational thinking and language (especially writing one) dominates in modern society.

hmm thats interesting, especially since i have norse ancestors.

Very Nice Tutorial, I actually mapped a dream once and since it was lucid I could remember the approximate distances to make an accurate map of the location I was dreaming of.

Way to necro... still the pic is kind of funny.

Right up there with things like "My girlfriend asked me what I lucid dream about, and I said doing her friend"

Making my map. Anyone else seen a field with golden grass,or a forest with small dirt dams?

Originally Posted by Vulpixel

Making my map. Anyone else seen a field with golden grass,or a forest with small dirt dams?

Well, i don't know about golden grassed field. Is it the same lcocation as your forest, or two separate locations?
can You please describe how this forest is looked like? try to describe Your impression, not small details, but whole picture. Actualy i don't understand about small dirt dams - can You describe configuration please?

Thank you.