The 2nd gate of Dreaming

[glance left]

So, this works...for sure Once lucidity is established in dreaming and the dream opens up...has that surge of energy + awareness, which feed into it...then there's the option of holding onto that subtle state as long as possible. It's a delicate balance between not getting too excited, which results in awakening...and not getting too absorbed in all the weird details of dreaming, which results in losing lucidity. And then, one needs enough dreaming energy, as well, to keep things going. One of those weird details is the phenomenon of "portals" in dreaming.....items/occurences which lead me from one dream to another. The dream changes, like magic, right in front of my eyes as I go through these portals (which sometimes manifest as tunnels...but not always). And the challenge is to hold onto lucidity while moving through these portals. A very common experience for me happens frequently amidst at OBE type dream....a dream in which I go into dreaming directly from a waking state in which I roll out of my body into the dreaming double. I'll be standing there in my bedroom, beside the bed...sometimes looks exactly like my room, with me there sleeping in the bed..but more often its only similar to my bedroom, with subtle shifts here and there. So that's the first gate, in a nutshell. No the only way to get to the first gate...but its a relatively frequent one for me. So...I'm standing there in my dreaming double in my bedroom. What now? Well....there's the option to leave the room! And that, more often than not, gives rise to the opportunity/challenge of the second gate. Because, more often than not, when I got to the bedroom door....or sometimes it happens when I get to the front door of my house.....and open it....that gesture takes me to another dream scene...another world, less familiar that that dream world I just left, which looks like my house. So now, the dream opens up and new stuff becomes available...the opportunity for weird interactions with weird beings....all of which are challenges for my dreaming attention. Can I keep my **** together? That....is the question .

Now, with respect to what Dreamer32 brought up.....a big time challenge associated with the 2nd gate phenomena is the challenge of following a IB scout. This is still a portal...but its a portal in which one willingly goes with some outlandish energetic being that is an expert in dreaming awareness/energy and follows it to its own turf. The analogy is, now I've agreed to go with some diplomat....get on his private jet...and fly to his country....a country of which is completely different from my own...the rules are different. I'm in THEIR dream. STranger in a strange land. Now things get very dicey indeed. Dreaming awareness is supported.....lucidity is supported...by all those professional dreaming entities around me who definitely have an ulterior motive, seemingly. It seems like their whole thing is about bringing in dreamers and keeping them there. From what I understand, and have experienced, they can't do it against my will...but they can act/put pressure on my weaknesses (of which I have a bunch! lol) in an almost preternatural way. They can be very enticing...and make a great sales pitch, to activate a dreamer's superficial desires in order to get them to stay. Or they act upon the dreamer's fears which then lend to projections of imprisonment which can actually entrap. That was my challenge (as is my challenge in the daily world, BTW). So the key to this challenge, for me, was the desire to sustain lucidity and a sense of freedom within dreaming. I didn't want to get stuck there, so I rallied something within me....something which manifested as detachment and as the ability to negotiate politely with my surroundings in order to regain freedom. The result was, I made it back! It was a second gate phenomenon...with a very specific test in the middle of it. I'm glad I did it, but won't be doing that one again, if I can help it. But, who knows!? Something is operative in me, beyond my current awareness, with respect to where I go/what I do in dreaming once I find lucidity there....and it's running the show, it seems. That's another weird thing about dreaming. Lucidity definitely brings something of my daily awareness into dreaming....but by no means does that mean that the "me" that operates "here" will be the full representation of the "me" that operates "there". There are other me's out there, and they've got plans I"m not aware of, apparently