Seventy, Serendipity, Painting and Dreaming

 on the Big Island

March 2010

Chapter 1-A Birthday Dinner Roast

March 2, 2010 was the beginning of one of the most intense months in my entire life. I began my seventieth year that day, and Pauline had organized a dinner roast for me at the Boathouse in Laguna Beach. Fifty of my friends tilted their glasses with me; the lobster was divine, and each offered his gesture of playful kidding. Pauline began with a powerpoint presentation in which she had selected about 50 slides highlighting my life, including pictures of me dating back nearly 70 years. The pictures showed me at work and at play, delivering papers as a paper boy, flying in NASA’s vomit comet, driving a snowcat in the mountains of Wyoming, horseback riding in New Mexico, painting in Europe, and speaking in Switzerland, plus a few more comical situations.

Lobster Tail was on the menu

Pauline making her speech at the roast. The picture is from about 40 years ago.

Me with a picture from 50 years ago.

Mayo, my longest-term friend present, recounted his introduction of naked massage to a 27-year-old country boy from Tennessee. I responded by acknowledging that he was undoubtedly the craziest friend I had. Mayo had always tested every new thing that came down the road from EST to Seth Speaks, and if he survived it and I had the time, then I could try it. It’s like throwing someone in to see if there are any sharks.

Maria, Toni, Chris, and Donn

A table of friends, Anatoliy, Alexandra, Rachna, Amit, Mayo, Lorraine, Holly, and Jim

Donn, a colleague from the second company I founded described our business as the most fun place he had ever worked. Donn, I credited with being a peacemaker second only to Mahatma Gandhi.

Mark, a friend from my current social circle, spoke a few kind words, and I credited him as being the classiest friend, who, if he had worn a tie, it would have been a $100 tie, and who runs Newport Harbor and drives the boat while I drink his whiskey.

Finally, Tim, my friend and art master, stole the show with a stand up comedy where I became the subject of a collection of gut splitting jokes. In one of his stories he asked me if I had made it with the twins that I once dated, and swears that my response was "Yes and No". His funniest was his sick squid story, funny only if spoken.

I followed his comments with the jab, that any time I want to piss off Tim, I just tell him I’m going to learn everything he knows about art.

Jonathan and Liz. Notice the cake and sculpture of me, a converted Santa Claus

I admitted that I liked having friends who were either smarter, more talented, weirder, or crazier than me, and my goal is to emulate the best parts of all of them. I mentioned that at least one of them was all of the above, but I wasn’t about to say which one. I thanked, Pauline, my best friend of all, and the most important force in my life, and ended by saying that to have such friends, "I figure I am the luckiest sumbitch in the whole world."

I arrived home with a trunk load of unexpected birthday presents and sat up until two in the morning opening them. The alarm clock gave me a few hours sleep, and soon the doorbell signaled Jon’s arrival to transport me to LAX where I would head for Hawaii to spend the next sixteen days. What I appreciate most about Jon taking me to the airport is that I get to spend forty-five minutes inside a closed box with my son. After 25 years the glue that holds our relationship together has finally become more than just love; we actually enjoy being friends. We had to go through a lot of shit before we could actually like each other.

Chapter 2-Painting the Big Island-"Deja Vue All over again."

Serendipity- A growing chapter in my life is about serendipity and synchronicity, and I have come to rely upon it almost every day. I even gave my guardian angel the name "Synchro". The Hawaii trip is an example where the serendipity is so extensive that the odds of it happening by pure chance are incredibly small. It takes some background, and I will forgive you for skipping the next few paragraphs unless serendipity intrigues you.

I have traveled with a group of artists each year for the past five years led by the maestro, Timothy Clark, one of the countries best known, living watercolorists (Yes, the same Tim who spoke at my dinner.) In 2010, his trip to France, where I would have elected to go, fell in the same week I had scheduled an Alaska cruise tour, a trip that I had been attempting to schedule for the past four years. Consequently, my only other choice to go on a painting trip with Tim’s group was Hawaii, beginning on March 3, the day after my birthday celebration.

Meanwhile, in a separate endeavor, my friend, Mayo had recommended a U-Tube lecture series by Tom Campbell, a physicist, that had renewed my interest in lucid dreaming, a scientifically based version of Zen meditation. At the same time I started planning the Hawaii travel I discovered a lucid dreaming workshop being presented by the master of lucid dreaming, himself, Stephen LaBerge, and now it gets interesting.

The lucid dreaming workshop would start on the very day Tim’s Hawaii workshop would end, and in a location thirty miles south of the Hotel where the art workshop would end. Stephen would cite this as an example that suggests we all are living in a dream. This, I figured, was a birthday present from the universe that would be sinful to turn down. What are the odds that all three of us could independently choose matching dates from the available 365? Moreover, Tim and I had independently matched dates for four separate events, France, Alaska, Hawaiian painting, and Hawaiian dreaming. Although it goes even deeper, this should suffice to illustrate the serendipitous nature of the events.

Painting the big island- Since my very first art trip with the group five years ago was Hawaii, some of this trip was déjà vu "all over again", but having done it before with many of the same people made most of it a totally new experience. I knew them well enough to move beyond the initial niceties and exploration that one must display before learning how to act, and who will be fun and useful to interact with. I could also relate to Tim on a much different level than before. I now consider him my friend. I did not feel the need to impress anyone with my art, and I didn’t hesitate to explore, try new ideas, and even fail to finish a piece every day. I was here to learn and grow, not necessarily to produce art.

For this trip almost everyone either showed up with a ukulele or purchased one on arrival. Alice, who is a local artist and a friend of the group, had helped me purchase a ukulele on my last trip. She had agreed to join us and give a few ukulele lessons. I had not played much ukulele since university forty years ago, but it was fun to revive a few of my skills, and we all had fun making up songs and doing the best we could. As usual, the more wine we drank the better we got. At least we thought we got better.

Alicia, a local Hawaiian who paints with us and plays ukulele

Hilde, a regular, and Tim

Ho Nau Nau Beach

Our first painting venue was Ho Nau Nau Beach, one of my favorites. On my last trip here a tourist purchased the painting I had done right off the easel.

The day began with a painting demonstration with Tim painting outrigger canoes, taking up a good part of the morning. After he had done a beautiful job on the canoes, I looked for something else to paint. Tim’s demonstrations always make it look so easy until I start putting paint on my paper and see it doesn’t do what it did when Tim put it on.

Painting a group of outrigger canoes

By the time I had selected a scene to paint and put down a wash, it was time for lunch and Tim’s critique. My immediate thought was that I hadn’t done enough to critique. To my surprise not only Tim liked it, but also one artist told he she was so moved by it that she had tears upon looking at it. Tim asked me to do no more to the painting. Since I wasn’t sure what would have come next anyway, I acquiesced, and decided to produce a completely different painting after lunch.

Greene and White, 15x22, Watercolor on paper, painted on location in Hawaii

My first inclination was to paint the canoes, but something was telling me that was not the right scene. Although I always struggle when choosing what to paint, when I finally begin to paint, I see the beauty, and I fall in love with the scene. That is true even with people. My first choice would be to paint a gorgeous nude figure; however, that inclination usually disappears within minutes after I start a drawing, and a wrinkled old man becomes just a beautiful as a gorgeous blonde. In selecting scenes to paint, somehow the universe often directs me and then protects me, and today was no exception. Regardless of the scene, a story always develops behind the painting.

As I stood looking at the canoes, I turned and looked in the opposite direction at a most beautiful seascape that immediately captured my interest. Once I was well into the paining the universe sent me two more signals. First, a lady entered the scene and sat in a perfect spot just in time for her inclusion in my painting. I painted her first without clothing, and just as I was about to add a bathing suit, Zeke and John approached. "Leave her nude!" they both pleaded in unison. "No, I insisted, she needs a suit. I don’t want to be arrested for undressing a woman on the beach." So I added a suit, even if one somewhat skimpier than the one she was actually wearing. Turns out this was an extremely good decision.

Painting scene for the afternoon at Honaunau Beach. As often happens, a young lady came after I began and serendipitously sat in the perfect spot.

Lady at Honaunau, 15x22, watercolor on paper, painted on location in Hawaii

After I had invested an hour in the painting a herd of kids emerged out of nowhere and surrounded me, commenting on the painting, noting that I had trimmed down the suit. "Jeez!", I thought. "I’m sure glad I put something on her." Then they proceeded to remove all the canoes and put them in the water. If I had selected the canoes as a scene, I would have nothing left to paint. Such hazards are quite common to plein air painters.

Fortunately, I selected a new painting scene. This club showed up and took all three canoes into the water.

Ho’ Okena Beach

After an evening with a little ukulele practice and a lot of Jack Daniels we headed for Ho’ Okena Beach, one of Tim’s favorite spots on the big island. I still have some difficulty with this location. My first reaction upon seeing it the first time was, "There must be a mistake. There is nothing here worth painting. " Eventually, I have come to realize that anything can be made beautiful with watercolor if you leave out enough stuff and throw in enough color. Nevertheless, unlike many artists, it takes me a while to stop looking for a painting scene that jumps in my face and screams "Paint me!" I don’t find much like that at Ho’ Okena Beach.

Tim’s Beloved Ho’ Okena Beach

If you sent four artists, Tim, Zeke, Hilde and me into the forest to paint, Hilde would immediately see a nice composition of trees and flowers and would create a masterpiece. Zeke would spend a while longer looking and would wind up creating a beautiful painting of a leaf he found somewhere lying on the ground. I would wander around for an hour searching for the perfect scene and would wind up painting the entire forest including all the trees, leaves, grass, and a few birds and squirrels. What would Tim paint? He would walk through the forest and find a pile of old tires in a clearing and produce a beautiful painting that would sell in New York like hotcakes for $2000.

So what did Tim elect to paint at Ho’ Okena Beach? See the figure below. I guess that is why he is the professional artist and I am the professional physicist.

Tim selected a pile of old tires as a painting subject. Tim commented, correctly, that forty years ago, Jim would have tires like this still on his car, good for another 20,000 miles. I wonder if this painting really will show up in a gallery in New York.

This all leaves me wondering. Why come to Hawaii? Why not just take the old tires in the garage or pick up a leaf in the back yard and paint there? Okay, I admit, the ambiance and companionship would be missing.

My first choice at Ho’ Okena Beach where I could sit in the shade was a group of houses. As always, as soon as I started, I became absorbed in it and saw the beauty. Unfortunately, no one else liked the painting.

My First Selection at Hoekena Beach

Hokeana Houses, 12x20, Watercolor on paper, painted on location in Hawaii. As much as I loved painting it, none of the others liked the painting.

After lunch I went back to the same spot, stood there for a while and then turned around like I had at Honaunau and looked in the opposite direction. The universe had provided me the scene I should have painted in the first place. I had been looking in the wrong direction.

Ho’ Okena Coastline, 10x22, Watercolor on paper, painted on location in Hawaii. This beautiful scene was behind me all the time. I was just looking in the wrong direction.

Kapahukapu Beach

On the third day we painted at Kapahukapu Beach, the most beautiful and private Beach yet. Every direction was a painting scene. The park even comes with a friendly donkey that walks around and greets everyone. One of he most beautiful scenes lay across the bay to the mountains, and it was a natural for Tim’s demonstration.

Like any plein air scene Tim’s demonstrations almost always have their distractions, although not always noticed by Tim. In Italy, a truck parked between the scene and us. In other parts of Hawaii, a whale put on a show during the demonstration. As Tim painted a palm tree against the mountains, a young lady sitting in the bottom right of his selected scene stood up and then spent a good part of the demo putting on suntan lotion. I don’t think Tim even noticed her. That is what happens when you get into the zone.

Is

Painting at Kapahukapu Beach. Notice the girl sitting just to the left of Tim’s face.

The distraction.

Kapahukapu Beach, 15x22, watercolor on paper, painted on location in Hawaii. My rendition of the scene Tim had selected (The distraction was no longer present.)

One of the most beautiful and colorful scenes was the late afternoon view from the balcony of our room at the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook.

View from our balcony in the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook

Farmer’s Market at Captain Cook

On Saturday we discovered a farmer’s market directly across from the Manago Hotel and decided that would be a good place to paint. It was also a good place to purchase souvenirs, and taste free samples of Macadamia nuts and Kona coffee, which is touted to be the best coffee in the world. Just by looking at the beans and sniffing, I could tell that I was in for a treat, and at $20/lb one expects it to be special. I wasn’t disappointed.

Hilo

On Monday we drove around the south end of the island, stopping at "The Most Southern Bakery in the United States for coffee, painting at a black sand beach, and eventually arriving at the Hilo Hawaiian. The view from our balcony of the Hilo Hilton was even more spectacular than that at Captain Cook.

View from our balcony at the Hilo Hawaiian. A cruise ship enters the harbor in the upper right.

Within walking distance of this hotel we found innumerable painting scenes and spent a good deal of time in the adjacent gardens built in honor of the last Hawaiian queen, Liliuokalani. From what I can gather, Hawaii was essentially stolen from the Hawaiians and Liliuokalani around 1898 by Dole, who was the sugar magnate behind that industry there. So it was all about the money.

Liliuokalani Lantern 1, 15x22, watercolor on paper, painted on site in Hilo, Hawaii in Liliuokalani Gardens. I painted part of this under an umbrella during a shower.

Dealing with the rain was a Plein air painting challenge in Hilo, where the sunshine is periodically interrupted with a downpour ever hour or so, verified by the raindrops visible in the painting. I got smart in the afternoon and found a cover to sit under to paint the second lantern of the day.

Liliuokalani Lantern 2, 15x22, watercolor on paper, painted on site in Hilo, Hawaii in Liliuokalani Gardens. I wised up and found a shelter to paint under since it rained for a few minutes every half hour.

Chapter 3- Dreaming and Awakening on the Big Island

Kalani Resort-After a few days of painting, great meals, ukulele serenades, and another fifth of White Horse, I said goodbyes to my artist friends and headed south to link up with the dream and awakening group. Our workshop was being held at Kalani Oceanside Resort, a non-profit organization located on 120 acres of ocean side land dedicated to green living, meditation, the arts, and also the gay community. Living conditions are comfortable, but austere, with no phones or television, community dining in an open-air lanai, a clothing optional pool, and gardening, crafts, and workshops ongoing in all areas. It seems like the ideal place for a retreat as well as a place where an artist could hang out and paint or write in complete peace.

Kalani Retreat may be Hawaii’s best-kept secret. Forty five minutes from Hilo airport and Volcano National Park headquarters, it lies within a few miles of other interesting attractions, the coastal part of Volcanoes National Park, Lava Tree State Park, McKinley State Park, Hot Springs, black sand beaches and the most beautiful coastline in Hawaii. The best part of all is that there are very few tourists, so in many of the attractions no one else was in sight.

Arriving at my room exactly at 10 AM when the first session was to start, I was happy to see the note from Gil, who would be my room mate for the next 9 days, instructing me that the meeting would take place upstairs. As I joined the already seated group, Keelin, Stephen’s assistant, greeted me, "You must be Jim."

Keelin

I took a seat just as Keelin began laying out the plan for the day. Days began with a 7:30 breakfast followed by 10 AM meetings, 12:30 lunches, free afternoons, 6 PM dinners, and 7:30 evening sessions. Initial introductions by each of the 30 attendees gave me the impression that many of these people were experienced oneironauts, some having attended this workshop multiple times before. The group of about thirty attendees included doctors, scientists, college students, retired businessmen and even a journalist, who was working on a book about such experiences. There were a surprising number of foreigners, at least six having come from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and France.

(Note: Having signed a non-disclosure agreement, I am bound not to disclose information about the workshop that is not already available to the general public. Abiding by this agreement may lead to some discontinuities in the following descriptions; however, since the most important parts of the workshop are publicly available on the www.lucidity.com website, this should not present a serious problem here.)

The workshop moved quickly providing a review of published dream research, techniques, and experiences. Within the first two days I came to realize that as much as I had read La Berge’s writings, and even though he had published essentially everything he was saying, nothing could replace hearing him, in person, explain the processes and responding to many questions. Somehow, simple anecdotes, and jokes, set the stage for deeper insights than I had gotten before. He has dedicated most of his career to lucid dreaming and is probably the most skilled and knowledgeable person alive on the topic.

My excitement grew as I realized that I would be able to use this knowledge, excitement not so much about what I would achieve in the next week, but what I could achieve during the next year. I had no idea or expectation of what I would experience during the next 9 days.

Stephen La Berge, sleep researcher and maestro of the lucid dream

A key feature of such a workshop is relating and swapping stories and ideas with people who are completely familiar with the experience of lucid dreaming. Stories that would be meaningless to the inexperienced listener can be extremely funny to the experienced. Each morning experiences reported on lucid dreams during the evening before drew roars of laughter and sympathy form the audience. Near misses where the dreamer would employ faulty dream logic and miss the chance to become lucid in a dream were even funnier to people all of who had similar experiences to relate

I reported such an experience the next morning. During a dream I was walking through the jungle with some of the members of this group when we came upon a structure whose architecture combined modern with ancient. One of the group said to me, "Jim, that would make a perfect dream sign for you." I understood his comment but did not conclude from it that I was dreaming. Later in the week I did successfully use such dream signs to become lucid.

On my second day I explored the painting sites within walking distance and discovered an artist’s dream. Everywhere I looked were beautiful flowers, trees, sculptures and interesting things to paint. When I walked to the ocean it just got even better. Hawaii is essentially the top of a volcano, so the coastline is unusual in that the water becomes deep very fast. When waves approach the cliffs, there is nothing to slow them down. They break very closed to the shore and then crash into the cliffs with explosive force, sometimes shooting a spray high into the air. It behooves one to examine the ground to see if it is wet before setting up an easel. Even that is no guarantee that a wave will not crash over the edge and drench you, as I soon discovered.

View from a cliff just outside the Kalani entrance. This began my education of the artistic features of ocean waves. Notice here that the waves break close to the shore with little to slow them down. There is nothing like this in California.

My first painting, looking eastward along the surf was an attempt to paint breaking waves. The crashing surf resembled a continuous explosion as clouds of spray launched a hundred feet in the air.

As is always the case with plein air painting, the challenges were many. The blasting wind required weighting down everything with big chunks of volcanic rocks before I could even began to draw. My first attempt was ruined by the second challenge, a quick rain shower that lasted just long enough to put spots all over the painting. I started again and broke out an umbrella, which I used for a few minutes every hour when a quick shower would start. I figured finally that I could deal with a few spots that may even validate the plein airness of the piece. My third challenge was the sun, which at this latitude can be dangerous to a whitey like me. Even the reflection from the white paper can produce sunburn. I realized this later when looking into a mirror seeing Rudolph the red nosed reindeer looking back. Fortunately aloe Verde saved me and gave me a second chance.

After overcoming these challenges I had some time to understand the artistic parameters and challenge of a wave painting, the ultimate challenge for a plein air painter. Waves don’t pose very long, and no two are the same. During the next few days I spent hours studying, photographing, and painting waves. A good wave has too many features in shape, color, and contrast to comprehend in a single glance. The water depth, turbidity, reflections, shadows, the sun’s angle, and the white water affect the color. The deeper water behind he wave is darker, the breaking edge is white and reflects in the shallower, greener water in front. Some light comes through the wave, causes shadows near the top, and then there is the spray. Bubbles on the surface contour he wave and shadows help define its shape as well.

Kalani Coastline, 15x22, watercolor on paper. My first crack at Kalani to capture waves. Waves present every artistic challenge, color contrast, shadows, reflections, transmitted light, value changes, movement, and perspective. And they don’t sit still.

My second day of painting was much simpler and I was better prepared. There was no wind, I found a good, dry shady spot next to the cliff to set up an easel, and I could use both hands since the umbrella was not needed. As luck would have it, a fisherman showed up on the distant cliff I was painting so I added him in. I sat in this wonderful place for hours without a soul in sight except for the fisherman a quarter mile away, and the singing birds combined with the booming surf were my own private symphony. The universe must have liked the painting. Just as I had packed it in my bag, a thundering wave crashed into the cliff beside me and totally drenched me. Five minutes earlier and the painting would have been drenched in salt water.

Second attempt at painting the surf. Two minutes after packing the painting a waved crashed across this spot and drenched me.

Kalani Coastline 2, 15x22, watercolor on paper. The next day. Notice the fisherman on the distant cliff, who entered the scene just when I needed a spot of red somewhere.

Kalani Coastline 3, 15x22, watercolor on paper. A few days later.

During one of the outings Gill and I explored a large lava tube in McKinley State Park. Unfortunately we had only one small flashlight, so it seemed rather foolish to go much farther than a few hundred feet, especially since no one else was around to rescue us. In fact, what we did might be considered foolish. The walls of the lava tubes are extremely colorful; however the floor was extremely hazardous with razor sharp lava rocks, which I believe are called aa. The ropey shaped lava is known as pahoihoi. These names I recalled from a geology course I took fifty years ago. I wish I could remember people’s names that well. Some of these lava tubes continue on and exit at the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Using our better judgment, we turned back before finding out how far this tube went.

Room Mate, Gil, exploring a lava tube with a single LED torch between us.

How We Learn

To develop skills in lucid dreaming, Stephen has uncovered and applies fascinating concepts concerning how we learn, and the third day yielded such an experience for me. Stephen reviewed a lucid dreaming technique that he had discovered and named MILD, Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, an exercise to induce lucid dreams. I had known about it for over thirty years but had never found it very useful. He began by quoting Mark Twain, "The things you don’t know won’t hurt you near as bad as the things you know absolutely that just ain’t so". He followed that quote with a story about a little girl who had noticed that each day at 9 AM a man riding a camel passed her home. Her father told her, "Why that is General Andrews. You should go out and greet him since he loves children." And so each day she went to the gate and waved as he passed. After about a year, the general rode by on a horse. Seeing this, the little girl ran to her father and asked, "What happened to General Andrews?"

Stephen, explaining "MILD"

At that point Stephen explained MILD again. For the first time in thirty years I realized that my almost trivial understanding of MILD "just aint so", and I finally got the profound meaning of the method.

Dream logic is always fascinating. Apparently, one analyzes and chooses with a different part of the brain during dreams, and some of the results are so absurd that they are, indeed, funny to anyone who is familiar with such experiences. All it takes is keeping a dream log for any one to appreciate this fact. The dream log will help you understand how truly different the dream world is from the waking world.

Being focused and spending a good part of the day thinking about and discussing dreams helped to bring on dreams. In the subsequent days of the workshop I recalled and recorded many dreams and had three lucid dreams, two of which were rather spectacular.

The first lucid dream started off after I recognized that my dream arm was a large rubber baseball bat instead of a usual arm. Such an observation should be a strong dream sign, and it was so obvious that I did not need to even run a dream test. Strangely enough, the dream took place on he second floor of the lodge, not in my own room, which was on the first floor. Moreover, the dream room was full of the other workshop attendees, and I immediately became aware that I might disturb some of them who are attempting to sleep. I immediately levitated and began to fly out of the window, upon which I found myself caught in the blinds in the window. Making a tremendous effort to dislodge my dream hand from the blinds, I pulled my real hand from beneath my body where it had been trapped. This woke me up.

Nearing the end of the workshop, I had my most successful dream night with two powerful lucid dreams. In the first dream Pauline and I were in Africa. We were in a "dream hunt". The rules of the game were:

1. This is a dream.

2. Something will attack.

3. At this moment you have no way to defend yourself.

4. When the time comes you will create your own defense.

We separated at that point. Suddenly I saw what looked like a large bear emerge from the edge of the clearing. He began to charge. I was not afraid since I knew it was a dream. When the bear came closer it transformed into a wild dog and leaped in the air. A large Bowie knife appeared in my dream hand and I impaled the dog on the knife. I then brought Pauline back into the scene and proudly began relating my victory over he dog. Suddenly I realized that I should have engaged the dog instead of killing him.

Then a hundred foot bear appeared on the horizon. Determined to communicate with him instead of killing him, I faced him, looked him in the eye and told him I wasn’t frightened. Then I growled at him. He disintegrated into a cloud of dust. I turned to Pauline and asked here if she had seen what I had just seen. She verified that it was real.

As the dust cloud cleared a car came into view, a window rolled down, and a gun barrel emerged from the window. I realized that this could spell trouble. The gun began firing and I could see bullets striking the building next to me. At that point I lost control of the dream, became frightened, started running away and woke up.

The second dream was even stranger. I had set my goal for the dream to fly over the nearby volcano and make some observations that I could paint upon waking. The dream began as I was lying on the pillow looking at the ceiling. I was already in a dream but had not become lucid. For whatever reason it occurred to me that I might already be dreaming so I decided to see if I could levitate from the bed. It worked and my next move would be to fly out of the window towards the volcano. Just as I began to take off, a dream Gil threw himself across me, pushing me back onto the bed and waking me up, a false awakening. This seemed to be a good time to attempt the WILD technique, a method to go from the waking state to the lucid dream state, Waking Induction of Lucid Dreaming. Just as I began the procedure, I turned my head to the right to discover a beautiful naked lady lying next to me. This was so shockingly real and yet bizarre that I then realized I was dreaming. I looked at her closely discovering that her body was covered in a very thin layer of chocolate. I leaned over and tasted the chocolate, and I asked her if she had anything to tell me. "We can talk later," she said.

At that moment, as I wondered what to do next, I remembered my goal. I explained to her that I had a task I needed to carry out before doing anything else. She encouraged me to go ahead with the goal and then come back. She promised to be there when I got back. I rose up in the bed with every intention of flying out the window, when I discovered myself wide-awake, sitting up in the bed. "This has to be another false awakening," I thought. I ran every dream test I could think of. Unfortunately, I really was awake.

The two and a half hour drive from Kalani Resort back to the airport took me back through Hilo and around the north end of the island through the largest cattle ranch in the United States. The intermittent rainstorms limited my sightseeing to a few stops along the way, but it gave me a chance to reflect over the wonderful experiences of the past 17 days ranging from a great birthday dinner to a chocolate-coated lady. That combined with the news that I had been upgraded to first class for my flight home reaffirmed that I am the luckiest sumbitch in the world.

 

 

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