#lhf — Public Fediverse posts

Lucid Dreaming

In some short periods of my life, I have had lucid dreams, which to me is a very exciting and interesting state of being. Recent research into the matter shows lucid dreaming to be a third state of consciousness, which in itself is exciting, but the actual experience of being awake in a dream and, to some extent, being able to control the dream is something else. It’s been a while since I have been able to do it consistently, and none of the well-known techniques has helped. But last night, something interesting happened: I woke up involuntarily at around 3 AM and was awake for an hour, and as I proceeded to get back to sleep, I entered the lucid dream space. Before that, there is the liminal space in between being awake and asleep, and there I had an image in my mind of the real world being in my left field of view, and on the right-hand side was the dream world behind a barrier of sorts. But I could see the contours of a hole in the barrier, and the more I focused on that opening, and the more I had a kind of inner dialogue about that, the more it opened up until I could put my head inside it, and after a bit of mental struggle I eventually, I floated into or up to a room that felt a bit like a gravity-free mental fitness room (for lack of a better description) where I could float around and examine different objects. It lasted for a while, and then I gently left the space and woke up again, but with a feeling of a breakthrough and with a will and motivation to go back there to explore that space more, much more if possible. This I will attempt tonight. And will report back; perhaps this could be useful for others to try. Looking forward to it..

How I look at art exhibits

Maybe you can use my approach; it’s a simple and useful way to sharpen your intuition. Always come to the museum or the show when it opens in the morning. That way, you have optimal energy and openness to take in new things. Start by walking all the way through the exhibition at a fairly high pace. Don’t stop during the walk, but try to notice all the artworks without thinking or judging the pieces. Then, walk back to the beginning. Now you know more about how to pace the visit, but more importantly, you have a sense of where to put your attention. And I think most people will like to know what they are getting into; we like estimated reading times on articles, and we want to know how long that video or podcast is before committing our precious time. There is always way too much to see and take in, especially at the big museums. But I’ve found that my intuition will point me to a handful or two of artworks that deserve a deeper dive. So, more often than not, I will spend 80% of the time on 5-10% of the art. The Tate has a good little piece on Slow Looking, well worth a look. The approach described works well for me; perhaps it’s something to try?

I am generally not interested in knowing the titles of the works or the artists’ intentions or life histories, etc., beforehand. This limits the ability to simply experience the work without prejudice. The most important thing is to experience the works, not sort them into little buckets of “beautiful,” “ugly,” and so on and so forth. Try to think of the exhibit more like being in nature, not judging every tree and flower, but just experiencing it. Always having a kind of “beginner’s mind” when looking at art is extremely important to me. I know a bit about art history and artists (especially the current Danish ones), but I believe that knowledge can get in the way of having an immediate experience; it can become a case of intellectual connect-the-dots that does nothing for me.

My approach to watching movies is similar; I generally like to know as little as possible before watching. The movies I like are often a bit strange and open to interpretation, so I prefer to be as open as possible. But after watching a good movie, I will often take a dive into analyses and reviews. I will also be happy to take in a good behind-the-scenes feature (something which has sadly been a bit lost with streaming; DVDs often had all that cool bonus material. But often there is stuff to be found on YouTube). Here are some unusual movies that I like.

A few ideas for your next visit to an art museum;

– If you go together with friends or family, split up, at least for some of the time at the exhibit. Then meet up and talk about what you’ve seen; maybe revisit some artworks together. But looking at art is really not a team sport.

– Show up early. Once I went to the Louvre at opening time. Most of the guests headed straight to see you-know-who; I went straight to the furthest corner of the world’s largest museum. A whole hour passed before I met another guest; it was great.

– If you really like the art, try to see if you can go twice to the same exhibit. It can be an extra look through at the end of a one-day visit, but even better to come back at a later date. Once a year or so, I visit Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen to look at new stuff, of course, but also just to revisit some favorite paintings.

– Take lots of photos. It’s impossible to remember all the great stuff you see on an extensive visit to a museum. Today it’s super easy to do an image search later to get more info on the works. So it’s not so much for looking at the art per se, more as a visual diary for later recall and research.

Kvällens fniss: "Luleås powerplay presenteras av Swosch....Vi tar hand om skiten.." 😆
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