Since the dawn of civilization, the theory of dreams has enamored and eluded philosophers: Where do they come from? Why do they occur? And if our minds can create realities in our sleep, who is to say that our minds are not simply imagining a reality while we are awake? Here in Santa Barbara, these questions have led a group of counterculture visionaries to imagine the abstract and manifest it into being. Their offspring is an annual transformational music festival and consciousness-expanding playground called Lucidity Festival, held this year over the weekend of April 8-10.
This was my first Lucidity Festival (and first ever campout festival in general) and I had little to no idea what I was getting myself into. Just a few miles up Highway 154 is the Live Oak Camp Ground, a beautiful campsite burrowed in the valleys between the San Raphael and Santa Ynez Mountains. The wilderness alone was enough to place me into a daydream, but add a bounty of kaleidoscopic visuals ranging from colorful Moroccan tents and sanctuaries to mystifying villages, neon-lit stages and a massive fire truck that spews actual fire called the “Pyrobar,” and I really started to believe I was in a lucid dream.
I arrived to the festival a few days earlier than the general population to participate in the Lucidity Festival’s newest installment, The Lucid University Courseweek. The Lucid University consisted of four courses: Art & Creativity, Embodiment and Leadership, Reiki 1&2, and Lucid Dreaming. As you might have guessed by the introductory paragraphs, I chose to participate in the Lucid Dreaming course.