Interspace and Dreaming

Despite the fact that during dreaming, as in any other states lacking firm grounding, the mind dwells in the Interworld, this does not mean that what is perceived in a dream is the Interval itself.

We have repeatedly said that the paradox of the Interworld is that it is both an immeasurably vast, primordial virtual space from which worlds are born, and at the same time only a name for a subtle edge, a barrier of perception, separating different modes of mental functioning. In other words, the Interval is simultaneously a space and a barrier; it is immeasurably great for the one who is there, and at the same time infinitesimally small for the one crossing the edge — that is, it is defined by one’s point of view.

Therefore, the mind perceives the Interval “as such” only when it is completely devoid of any support, whereas “partial immersion” in the Interworld occurs with any destabilization of the mind. In this, the Interval appears externally as a barrier, a “crack between worlds,” a two-dimensional image that has no depth of its own. It is precisely this feature that greatly complicates the study of the Interworld: dreaming, trance, scrying, and the like do not sever the mind’s connection to its physical body, and therefore produce a “mixed” perception, in which habitual interpretations and patterns imposed by the brain are “layered” onto the experience of the Interval. Put differently, the experience of dreaming is a perception of the Interworld through the lens of ordinary reality, in which intermediate objects, processes, and energies that are perceived are ascribed familiar forms and images that only roughly convey their essence. The mind, as it were, “dresses” unstable phenomena of the Interval in familiar “costumes,” creating a more or less meaningful and comfortable quasi-reality.

Such perception, of course, can be analyzed into parts: on the one hand, it provides psychotherapeutic insight, making it possible to find out which images and interpretations are currently relevant to the psyche, what the psyche’s current ‘wardrobe’ is, into which it tries to impose upon unformed experience; on the other hand, one can also find the underlying ‘roots’ of this perception and identify the forces and processes hidden by these masks.

Accordingly, depending on the task facing the researcher, it is necessary either to “crystallize” the pure experience of perceiving the Interval, or to isolate its interpretations. And just as psychotherapeutic practice may fail if “external” influence of the Interworld is mixed into the identification of traumas and psychological complexes, the mapping of aeons and ethers is often inaccurate due to personal experience projected onto them.

In this identification, the practice of self-knowledge developed by the Magus in goetic and theurgic practices helps greatly, as does the skill in detaching from interpretations, developed in contemplative and exploratory methods. Without such experience, all attempts at “dream interpretation,” undertaken for both therapeutic and research purposes, will almost inevitably prove unsuccessful.

Even when the research is carried out by apparently controlled methods — such as “lucid dreaming” or scrying — awareness alone is not enough; one also needs skill in identification, “distillation” of the perceptual stream — this, in fact, requires Magical Authority. The absence of such experience is one of the reasons for the energy depletion that often accompanies “lucid dreams,” since many phenomena perceived in it remain, in fact, unnoticed or incorrectly interpreted.

And even confirmed energetic intensity of what is perceived does not guarantee the correctness of its interpretations. Understanding, describing, and assessing the experience’s value of the Interval requires Power and Authority.

Moreover, despite the protection of the “threshold” forces guarding the mind, deep immersion into the Interval is almost always accompanied by encounters with predators dwelling there, and without sufficient experience recognizing them, their attacks may go unnoticed or be detected too late, which is also fraught with energy drains.

Therefore, the analysis of any experience drawn from contact with the Interval must include answers to three questions: 1) How “energetic” is this experience, to what extent is it the result of contact between the mind and stable flows of energy and consciousness; 2) What lies behind this experience — which energies or agents interacted within it; 3) How the brain interpreted it, what images it imposed, and which masks it used.

With due diligence and developed skills, the answers to all three questions will undoubtedly represent both valuable for self-knowledge and will also make a general contribution to the Magus’s holistic worldview and their place in it.