Summerland Revisited

[Summerlander]

Hi! This is the reason why I decided to call myself "Summerlander" in forums like these:

Some time around 2009:

"I entered the Phase post vibrations to find myself in an erratic replica of my house where I entertained myself by creating some thought-form objects. There was a clock on the hallway wall which was different to the one in actuality. I touched this metaphysical device, wondering if it contained some sort of mechanism, and felt its solidity. Then I noticed light coming from the large hallway mirror. I went through it and encountered a being who stood as though in the transition between two worlds. This being was humanoid in shape and I could not determine its gender. I wasn’t able to look at this character for long as I apparently shifted through the division marking the apparent dichotomy of two worlds after having entered the mirror-portal.

The entity smiled as I went through the mirror, and, on the other side, I found an unbelievable world! It had a serious emotional impact on me because it was so attractive and vibrant in colours. I also remember thinking: "I didn't imagine this". There were cottages and well-groomed trees that I was seeing from bird's eye view and I wondered who was inside. There was a vast magical forest adorned by rainbows and strange creatures flying over it. In the distance there was a golden city which seemed to blend with a multicoloured sunset sky where a vast river met the horizon. The smiling entity who stood between my illusory abode and this new and more settled mystical realm was nowhere to be seen now. It wasn’t just a visual experience. As I beheld it I felt love, harmony and so much happiness. It was a fairytale land, magical and mysterious and so alive. I still can't find enough words to describe it.

Then I felt myself being pulled back as though I didn't belong there or like something had teased me with it. When I woke up I felt extremely sad because I was no longer there. I opened the windows in my room to look at our world. The trees, the houses and the sky of our world is nothing compared to what I‘d seen. In comparison, our world looks somewhat like a decayed version of that vibrant wonderland. At the time I hadn't yet heard of the term “Summerland“ which is used to refer to an afterlife world by Spiritualist traditions. Weeks later I flicked through a book about the afterlife by David Fontana at my local library and found descriptions of beautiful cities, forests, rainbows and cottages (this struck a cord with me) by both the living who experienced OOBEs and NDEs, and the dead who allegedly came through mediums to tell their loved ones all about where they were.

According to the book, not all souls were in a happy place, but “Summerland” came up a few times as the appropriate name for the harmonious colourful worlds that were being described. I've never been one to like or think of cottages and it struck me that I saw them before coming across similar descriptions of Summerland. After that, I pondered over the idea of having come across another plane of existence populated by non-physical beings as much the possibility that I accessed an imagined world from my deep unconscious - possibly a thought-form construct that thrived from childhood after having been exposed to fairytales. This profound Phase experience made me fond of cottages and trees. It was an ideal world of many wonderful things which could have easily come from an innocent child's imagination and developed ever since, especially in an artistic mind such as mine, rather than becoming obsolete."

- Summerlander's Journal

[personalreality]

yea, summerland is a pagan name for the otherworlds.

[Summerlander]

I see. There was a lot going on in my experience but I've never really read much about Summerland apart from what was in the David Fontana book. I think it was called Is There An Afterlife? - The book also referred to it as an "Upper Astral plane" or the "Plane of Colour". The "Lower Astral" was also called "Plane of Illusion". There were other spiritual planes of existence mentioned like the "Plane of Pure Light" otherwise known as the "Mental Plane". And then there were other 'cosmic' planes above that. The New Age view seemed to be well-documented. OOBEs, NDEs and lucid dreams were mentioned, of course - it wouldn't be a good book about the afterlife without mentioning that phenomena otherwise.

After my experience I decided to do an art piece in tribute to the experience. I don't think it's even close to capturing what I saw let alone what I felt. It was the perfect cure to psychosis. It conveyed beauty perfectly and the harmony was incredible. One thing I forgot to mention in my diary is that things radiated music too. I should really add this to my journal. I still remember those sounds as though coming from a thousand flutes combined with the chirping of birds. Here's the picture, btw:

[urshebear]

Thankyou for this Summerlander!!
That sounds amazing and I love the way you write so descriptive and with so much detail.
I always wonder where people get their usernames from lol

[Summerlander]

Thanks, urshebear! Feel free to share with us where you got yours from!

[Astral316]

I love that picture, dude... captures the mystical earthy aura perfectly. Have you tried to return there?

[urshebear]

My username does have a little story behind it...

when my mum was pregnant with me she decided to call me Tempest but my dad had a dream that he had a newborn baby girl named Ursula and she could talk.
Anyway when I was born I cried out a really clear distinctive "mummy" my mum was really ticked cause she knew from that she had to name me Ursula

So later on my parents found out that Ursula means little she bear
Ive been seeing and talking to a bear in my dreams for as long as I can remember and sometimes when I project I see him sitting by my bed watching over me.

Still dont know what to make of it and I know it sounds crazy but I cant help but love him because he makes me feel safe and I think I do the same for him..

People sometimes call me "ursh" as a nickname so urshebear is a combo of my name and the meaning

[ether2]

yes that is a cool picture man...
i seen that over on AVers i think ya misses posted it(?), got the impression she did the picture, obviously not, you are good at ya pictures (art) no doubt about that, i've come across many artist that like to project and do things talked about on sites as this, so i looked into it around last year mmm interesting wonder if you know why, if not i'm sure you will one day...

good luck

love all

[sonoraroach]

Wow your picture kinda gave me deja vu! I love it, its beautiful. It reminds me of a dream I had, I remember the three moons in a purple sky... one of my coolest dreams! trippy...

[Summerlander]

I love that picture, dude... captures the mystical earthy aura perfectly. Have you tried to return there?

Thanks! I tried to return there but ended up in random places that did not convey the same emotions and weren't as brilliant.

So later on my parents found out that Ursula means little she bear
Ive been seeing and talking to a bear in my dreams for as long as I can remember and sometimes when I project I see him sitting by my bed watching over me.

Still dont know what to make of it and I know it sounds crazy but I cant help but love him because he makes me feel safe and I think I do the same for him..

People sometimes call me "ursh" as a nickname so urshebear is a combo of my name and the meaning

That's cute, Ursh!

yes that is a cool picture man...
i seen that over on AVers i think ya misses posted it(?), got the impression she did the picture, obviously not, you are good at ya pictures (art) no doubt about that, i've come across many artist that like to project and do things talked about on sites as this, so i looked into it around last year mmm interesting wonder if you know why, if not i'm sure you will one day...

Yeah, it was originally posted on AVers. It seems that a lot of the people into OOBEs on AVers are artistic too. I' ve no idea if there is a connection there...quite possible!

Wow your picture kinda gave me deja vu! I love it, its beautiful. It reminds me of a dream I had, I remember the three moons in a purple sky... one of my coolest dreams! trippy...

The sky was quite complex and multicoloured but pink and orange seemed to dominate. There was a lot going on...slightly confusing but beautiful to just take it all in or just to focus on a portion of the scenery. My drawing doesn't do it any justice to be frank. It is too deterministic, a travesty, a translation for the analytical mind or the waking self...it's a corrupt representation of what was experienced. I'm not sure if I'm getting across what I really mean but, something happened to me today which is sort of relevant and may serve as a weird example:

Today, at work, I was thinking about ways to improve memory. Then I imagined a scenario where I was being tested. In my imagination I was in a room and a person would come in wearing something that I would have to remember later. Another person would come in after that and I'd have to remember the details of what they were wearing too. I'd also have to remember their names and what order they came in. So I thought - how would I be able to remember it all? The answer came...I'd have to find a fun way to remember everything...

I started thinking that I could convert the memory into an interesting story where the people's names would be followed my nicknames that would match what they wore - example: Thomas Bluebow (blue bow/tie), and then Miss Amy Wineblouse (purple blouse) etc.

The story would develop with new subsequent characters as the "event" unfolds. This concept was devised in my head in a few seconds and I realised that, originally, in my mind, I had not thought of the details of the solution to improve memory. I had not thought of any specific names of people nor any type of clothing whatsoever. I merely thought this:

"TRIKKA TRENDY...PARA SHOOTER..."

Now this is what I found odd: "Trikka" is not even a name. "Trendy" is not a piece of clothing. When I generated this thought, it made perfect sense to me in my daydreaming mode and I knew its translation to be exactly what I've stated above:



But when I went back to reflect on the origins of the fun thought-solution, I found that it was less meaningful or almost lost in translation. I started to work out why "TRIKKA", why "TRENDY, "PARA" and "SHOOTER"...

Trikka could convey the idea of "trick" and tricks can provide solutions. Trendy, from "trend" can relate to clothing but also, it could mean exactly that - a trend - as in, "get used to applying this trick/method" in order to improve memory.

Para Shooter was translated to "parachute", which could convey a solution to stay out of the trouble of forgetting. Parachuting to safety can bring a sigh of relief.

I started to realise that the strange thoughts TRIKKA TRENDY PARA SHOOTER were archetypal and conveys the whole thing that I had in mind. It seems to be formulated in a type of consciousness of high entropy where abstract ideas manifest and can mean so many things but it eventually settles into low entropy consciousness where it means and becomes one thing only and thus more restricted! It becomes finite.

Perhaps there are levels of reality with infinite potential and closer to the abstract consciousness. Perhaps it all starts there and when we enter the Phase we can clearly see/experience these other potentials - the unborn reality! This could also explain why certain nonsensical dreams seem to make sense while we are in them but are hard to translate in the waking state or are deemed to be completely absurd.

[Jilt]

I had a fairytale-like experience like yours once and I'll always remember it too.

FYI there's a charming town named Summerland next door to the what I think is the most beautiful place in the world (Santa Barbara, California). It was named by the Spiritualist community that settled there at the turn of the century. It's aptly named since it's a magical area.

[Lightning]

Nice, so that's where your nickname came from 

It does look like some place out of a fairy tale. I can't wait to have my own experience visiting a place like that.

My name in the forum is related to the oldest LD (and possible projection) I recall. I was standing in my balcony, and the whole world outside was in complete darkness. Right in front of me I saw huge bolts of lightning, thousands of them. They were almost striking me, but I was standing still there, observing peacefully.

I saw lightning again in other dreams, and whenever it appears, everything else just stops and it feels like I'm witnessing a divine message. The feeling is powerful but not ominous, and I'm always calm during and after the event.

[sonoraroach]

I like your memory "trick" there, summerland! I get what you mean about dreams making sense and being absurd upon waking.... I also like the "unborn reality" analogy...this is the reason  I love this site, new ideas like that are great for my "learning experience" and they make me think beyond the limits. Very cool! I like all the posts I have read of yours, good stuff. I remember an awesome dream I had as a kid of a surrealistic beautiful scene with a silver winding road going up a mountain that appeared to have a beautiful temple at the top of the steep mountain. I tried to draw the dream but like you say, you cant capture it all, but it was still a cool picture, I wish I still had it. One reason I love your drawing is that it reminds me of that picture I drew years ago (I would seriously like put your picture on my wall if I had a copy ) I think many great works of art were inspired by dreams, along with inventions, music, poems, etc. Dreamers are creative people in many ways... I think that creating a way to strengthen your memories of dreams would probably result in a flood of great ideas and creativity.... wow...were on to something...

[Stillwater]

Yeah, the Summerland does indeed refer to the nethers. It was taken up again by the 19th century Spiritualists and Theosophists, and in vogue well into mid 20th century.

My name is the street I once lived on 

[Summerlander]

I had a fairytale-like experience like yours once and I'll always remember it too.

FYI there's a charming town named Summerland next door to the what I think is the most beautiful place in the world (Santa Barbara, California). It was named by the Spiritualist community that settled there at the turn of the century. It's aptly named since it's a magical area.

Cool! Do you reckon these fairy-tale worlds are collective BSTs? I really felt like it wasn't mine. If Frank Kepple's model is correct, these worlds could have their existence in Focus 3 oC, possibly "up the tree" near Focus 4 - who knows. Maybe there are many "summerlands".

My name in the forum is related to the oldest LD (and possible projection) I recall. I was standing in my balcony, and the whole world outside was in complete darkness. Right in front of me I saw huge bolts of lightning, thousands of them. They were almost striking me, but I was standing still there, observing peacefully.

I saw lightning again in other dreams, and whenever it appears, everything else just stops and it feels like I'm witnessing a divine message. The feeling is powerful but not ominous, and I'm always calm during and after the event.

 

That's cool! You remind me of this:

I like your memory "trick" there, summerland! I get what you mean about dreams making sense and being absurd upon waking.... I also like the "unborn reality" analogy...this is the reason  I love this site, new ideas like that are great for my "learning experience" and they make me think beyond the limits. Very cool! I like all the posts I have read of yours, good stuff. I remember an awesome dream I had as a kid of a surrealistic beautiful scene with a silver winding road going up a mountain that appeared to have a beautiful temple at the top of the steep mountain. I tried to draw the dream but like you say, you cant capture it all, but it was still a cool picture, I wish I still had it. One reason I love your drawing is that it reminds me of that picture I drew years ago (I would seriously like put your picture on my wall if I had a copy ) I think many great works of art were inspired by dreams, along with inventions, music, poems, etc. Dreamers are creative people in many ways... I think that creating a way to strengthen your memories of dreams would probably result in a flood of great ideas and creativity.... wow...were on to something...

Oh, man! I'm so glad I wasn't misunderstood there! Yes, these sites are great for sharing ideas and views! It's been a learning experience for me from the beginning. Also, you are spot on with the art thing...Salvador Dali is a blatant example! Also, my most recent art was influenced by my OOBEs. Btw, I'm planning to have my OOBE-art feature in the book that I'm currently writing, so, when I eventually publish it I will let you know - Summerland will definitely be there.

Yeah, the Summerland does indeed refer to the nethers. It was taken up again by the 19th century Spiritualists and Theosophists, and in vogue well into mid 20th century.

My name is the street I once lived on  

Stillwater Street or Road? Wow...it sounds so Buddhist! LOL!