Monday, my first day exploring Kalani. While it is already tuesday now, and I just have eaten lovely fruity breakfast and start to wake up more fully, in today’s blog post, I will reflect on my activities from yesterday. In short: explored the scenery, visited the volcanic beaches nearby, and … met Stephen LaBerge the same evening!

My morning

So the first night sleeping in Hawaii wasn’t that great. My body had much trouble in adjusting to the new time zone, although I eventually did enjoy a fair amount of quality sleep. Anyway, after publishing my first blog, I went out on exploring the location.

Once I stepped out of my lodge to leave, I had my first daytime glance over Kalani’s terrain. I had only seen it by dark up to that time. Jungle everywhere. Nothing else to hear other than a smooth breeze moving around me and some birds tweeting from their hiding places. Several other lodge buildings next to me.

I immediately spotted the artistic statues/objects that are scattered across the terrain. Kalani is all about spirituality. They provide countless workshops on meditation and yoga. The surrounding mystical art is a subtle reminder of why most people are here to spend their retreat time. Up to now I have not seen even one kid. Mostly 30 year olds and some seniors. All relaxed, down to earth (almost has an Australian vibe to it) and so open-hearted. Kalani is sustained and developed by dozens of volunteers (from all over the world) who stay for 1 to 3 months (or for some even longer) to contribute to the place and the community. And in addition, attend workshops to learn more about themselves and the others. A deeply connected community of happy young people.

First around 12am I had lunch as my breakfast. I needed some additional sleep and so doing skipped breakfast at 7.30am. The Dreaming and Awakening program fee includes 3 excellent daily meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) at Kalani’s central eating spot (“Dining Lanai”): an open casual terrace with a cute buffet like kitchen to it. You just show your residence batch to let them know you are part of the group and off you go.

Checking out the beach

After “breakfast” I decided to get a water bottle. Carrying drinking water with you all day is quite a necessity here. I also got myself a nice leather bracelet as a cool souvenir. There are two guest service buildings on the terrain. They sell snack foods, drinks, souvenirs and clothing. Easy and basic. All your purchases will be linked to your account so that you don’t need to carry any money with you. Great.

Once that was done, I left for the beach. I could not wait to see the waves rolling in. The night before, I did not see anything else but dark jungle and the roaring sound of the waves and night animals. This time it was different. Just down the road, a couple of meters in front of Kalani’s entry gates, a small trail on the other side of the road led to a wonderful spot right in front of the ocean where high waves crush and break into the rock before you. I needed 30 minutes to let the site sink in. It was spectacular (see picture).

Incidentally I met a guy there – a Kalani volunteer – who was strolling around the area listing to music. He told me that the air we were breathing now would probably be the most clean and pure air we would ever breathe: he was right. We got to talk and eventually decided to both walk to the volcanic beach 1.5 miles from Kalani. We followed the road, had a great chat, and arrived at the scene: a small smooth black Orio-like beach with big waves rolling in. Several groups of people sunbathing and swimming. The seawater was warm and so blue. Since I did not plan to swim at that time but only check out the beach (did not bring any swimming clothes with me), I could not go in …  regrettably. I will certainly visit that beach today again.

Meeting Stephen LaBerge

Once I returned to Kalani, I had a nice refreshing swim in the swimming pool. I had dinner as well. I already noticed a few people, eating by themselves, reading lucid dream related material with their dream journal on the table; clearly I was not the only one feeling great about having a few days to relax and prepare before the actual Dreaming and Awakening workshop of Stephen LaBerge would start off.

That evening I met Stephen, Lynn (Stephen’s wife) and Keelin. I was on my iPad working, when I heard them entering the lodge building to check out the equipment and initial set up. The weirdest thing was hearing Stephen’s voice, that I instantly recognized from having listened to all of his audiobooks on lucid dreaming before. This was for real! The next moment I was hugging Stephen and was so pleased to finally meet him, having aspired to do so for 10 years after having read his wonderful edition of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming and using all of his devised and studied lucid dream induction techniques: the leading scientist in the field. And now we were hugging :-)

My first impression of Stephen: so kind, much smaller than me, grey/white hair, but surprisingly active: he has a real spark to him. He made smart jokes constantly, readily supported by Keelin (Stephen’s assistant and program coordinator) who seemed to be the most caring and genuinely loving person I have ever met in my life so far. Two extra-ordinary people.

But than it just continued… as I reminded myself. This was not about “just meeting Stephen”, I would actually have a full 9 day time frame to get to know him and he to know me; learning everything there is to know about lucid dreaming. I could not help to gaze at him while he and Lynn were checking out the equipment: this was actually happening!

We had some few more laughs (occasionally Stephen was flashing a bright light into my left eye to tempt me to do a Reality Test in prospect of using the Novadreamer) until a few minutes later they left, making made me excited about the start of the program. I needed an hour to feel sleepy again.

Today

Today is actually the starting date of the program. This means that most 22 participants will arrive today. This evening Stephen will start with the introduction of the program! I am so ready for this.

Related Posts:

• Arriving at Kalani part 2
• Embarking on my lucid dream adventure! part 1
• Stephen LaBerge’s introduction to lucid dreaming part 4
• Lucidipedia goes WILD with new online classes
• Would excessive lucid dreaming be dangerous?