Lucis Elucidations is a set of cards that extend the Lucid Peninsula installation in unexpected directions. The cards are based on processes, ideas and dreams that emerged in the development of the physical narrative. They contain instructions or suggestions designed to be used in a range of settings - from sidewalks and parks to kitchens or bedrooms. The cards enable the players to re-create different aspects of the story, the creative process or the experience of lucid dreaming beyond the walls of the exhibition.

Download printable cards here (dimensions: 84x55mm)

1. Look at your hands and feet. Are they the familiar shape? Do you have the right number of digits on each appendage? Look at one hand and one foot at a time for about a minute. Do you see anything changing?
2. Find a mirror. What does your reflection look like? If your body image strikes you as unexpected or unusual in some way, you are either dreaming or have seen through the illusion of your ideal self.
3. Try jumping on the spot. Can you jump over the moon or sustain a jump for an unusually long time and levitate? If not, go to sleep and try again.
4. If it seems you’ve gained supernatural abilities, it’s likely you’re not awake. Try performing a few checks to be certain: have you taken drugs or been poisoned? Are you an accident victim? Are you hallucinating? Could you be suffering from concussion or some other injury?
5. Can you remember why you’re here, how you arrived, or what happened an hour ago? Rewind the past hour in your mind’s eye. If you find memory gaps, or the linear flow of time seems disrupted, you might be dreaming. Practice time winding and unwinding: slow down to glacial time, or speed up to the duration of a dragonfly’s lifespan.
6. If the physical world appears more malleable than you are used to and you are aware of it, you are likely to be dreaming. Feel free to mould reality as you see fit.
7. While walking through the city, try reading anything you lay eyes on. Turn away and repeat it to yourself, then turn back and read it again. Do this twice. Do the sentences change when you read them twice?
8. If repeating the same action over and over changes your understanding of the world, you are probably creating your own reality. Stories within stories within stories. In this case, sit back, relax and enjoy the world of your own making.
9. As you are falling asleep, hold the suggestion in your mind that you will have a lucid dream in the near future. You can use a mantra such as “I will know that I’m dreaming”. Don’t try too hard. Sleep well and see you on the other side.
10. While sitting or standing in a moving vehicle, silently repeat a short mantra, such as: “When I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming”. Imagine yourself in a dream you’ve had recently, but this time you recognise that you are dreaming.
11. Try switching your attention constantly. Images and sounds should start to emerge on their own, gradually becoming very strange and illogical. You are now entering your own dream and can quickly become lucid. It might feel like being flipped upside down, spun around, or tugged by an outside force. You can expect strange auditory hallucinations, dark beings, or flying sensations.
12. “All phenomenal experience is a dream. Dream is only one type of illusion. Wakefulness is another.” Repeat these sentences as a mantra for one day. Observe how your experience of the world changes.
13. Try living your life for one day while meditating on physical reality as an illusion. Begin by contemplating the question, “Who is aware?” Continue to visualise the whole universe as it arises and dissolves like a mirage, an echo, or a city in the clouds.
14. Hold your breath while walking through the city until you see a plant. Go up to the plant and breathe deeply a few times. Then move on without breathing until you see another plant. Drift through the city from plant to plant, breathing only when you’re in close proximity to one.
15. As you draw this card it will transform itself into a box. Give the box to someone nearby and suggest they reach inside. Ask them to describe what’s in the box. As they describe its contents, the box transforms and empties, ready to be passed on to someone else. Repeat.
16. Look through a window and contemplate any geometrical patterns outside. Shift your attention to plant forms. Finally, focus on anything that moves. Now sit down, close your eyes and blend your visual impressions into a creature made of geometry, greenery and movement. Welcome to the Lucid Peninsula.

see also lucid elucidations drafts