This Pale Blue Dot -or- Meditation and the Star Maker's Universe

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew." Marshall McLuhan

Traveling in the cosmos is not a new idea, Cicero's "Dream of Scipio" had provided a dream vision of trailblazing travel through the cosmos. As a "Star Trek" fan since adolescence and later as a student at University, I often found myself exploring the Universe, going to oneiric places where "noone had gone before" (Star Trek video). The tales and themes found in the Star Trek franchise speak of the inter-galactic and planetary problems of war and peace, authoritarianism, cultural imperialism, human rights, sexism, feminism, technology, class conflict, economics, racism, religion, and friendship to name a few. While at "University", as the name itself suggests, the "universe" is what students should be academically free, helped and guided to explore and experience.

Now, and for quite some time my feet have been firmly planted on the planet Earth, I have attempted to explain to you the reader about the multitude and magnitude of problems our planet is faced with from a dream vision perspective. A "Next Generation" of dreamers has continued the experience of the dream "trek" to the stars. Star Trek is not the only science fiction (SF) story and vehicle to drive and fuel the imagination of our dreams. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick teamed up to create the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" which provided its audience with an epic SF view of human evolution, sentient artificial intelligence and extra-terrestrial life. Below is Sarah's "vision" sent to the International Institute for Dream Research that references the film "2001" and travels to the stars. Here is the "vision";

Sarah, 24 Canadian

Hi, This might be an odd one for you, its a vision not a dream, and no, no drugs or chemicals or anything like that was involved.  I had this vision about 10 years ago but I can still remember it like it was yesterday.  It was the something like the 3rd time I tried meditating, I was 14 at the time. I was sitting cross legged arms folded in my lap, and I had relaxed my entire body, something I had taught myself, my breathing was slowed.  There was a floating feeling then:

I was in a green tunnel that was moving past me or I through it very fast, kinda like the end of 2001 Space Odyssey, but only green.  The tunnel twisted left, up and down, then abruptly ended, and I was in space, deep space.  I stretched out across space trying to touch or feel something yet I couldn't find anything, it was so vast, I stretched until I felt the point that if I didn't return to a point I wouldn't be able to.  So I returned to a point, and then the star scape turned and I was moving.  I moved until I found earth, I came close to earth so it filled my vision.  Across the planet I could see my own face like seeing ones reflection in a window, faint but still there.  Then my face moved back until the whole of me was ghosted across the earth sitting in exactly the position I was sitting on my bed.  At which point I knew it was over and opened my eyes. Afterward I felt very peaceful, all I could think was "wow".

2001: A Space Odyssey -or- The Star Maker and the Active Imagination

Your "vision" created in a meditative state can be viewed as a "waking dream". Carl Jung would call such meditative experiences "active imagination". The Beatles song "Across the Universe"  (watch music video) was reportedly influenced by "Transcendental Meditation". While your dream of the universe and the Earth can be seen from the various perspectives such as the film 2001, Carl Jung, the Beatles, and Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space", there is another literary work that can explain your vision more precisely.

The "Star Maker" by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937 offers a cosmological voice and a dream vision that is remarkably similar to your own. Arthur C. Clarke reportedly believed that "Star Maker" was one of the best SF stories ever written. In chapter 15 "The Myth of Creation", Stapledon attempts to describe his mythic dream vision of the nature of the great cosmopoetic creator of the universe; "That strange vision, inconceiveable to any finite mind, even of cosmical stature, I cannot possibly describe." Much like in your own vision, after exploring the cosmos, the novel ends with the traveler returning to Earth.

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.